The Gift of Poison
by beautifulluckyaura
Summary: Naraku died, but he came back, only to kill one person before dying again. But Kagome's been poisoned, and there's only one person who can save her. Can she learn to trust one of her biggest enemies? Sesskag, KagOC. Rating may go up.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

I'd never thought of how I would die. Well, I guess I had, once upon a time, after the first time we defeated Naraku, but I'd always thought I would die in Inuyasha's arms, our children and friends surrounding me. Not like this. Never had I thought that this would happen, especially after we killed Naraku. Apparently, Naraku could be revived, and there are actually idiots that would do it.

I watched as the tentacles pulled out of Inuyasha and he fell to the floor, so torn and bloodied I knew it was impossible for him to rise again, but still, I hoped that somehow he was still alive... But no amount of demon's blood could save him now. Nor would any magic I or anyone else could produce, not even the Tensaiga, as Sesshoumaru had already used I ton him, and on Miroku and Sango, once upon a time. He was dead, an un-transformed Tetsusaiga still at home, not even bothered with. We hadn't thought we would be attacked, we were just going to go get herbs, after all. Inuyasha could handle almost all the local demons, as weak as they were.

I pushed up a quick barrier, trying to get rid of the tentacles coming after me. Trying in vain to save at least myself so I could go find Sango, Miroku, somebody, and warn them.

Sometimes, the tentacles burst through, but I must have been charged up a bit more than I had thought, because they all purified soon after entering. I thought I was doing well until something came in from behind me.

Then there was pain. Blinding searing pain, and I fell, my barrier collapsing along with my body.

The obviously alive Naraku came over to me, coldly saying "His heart is dead, miko. Onigumo is gone, and you will soon join your mate and his rival in hell. Don't fret; your friends will be joining you soon."

At that moment, as I felt myself weakening, letting go of my semblance on reality, a white flash moved in front of me, protecting me from Naraku, and the white person, for that is what I'd begun to notice it as, saved me, dissolving the unsuspecting, arrogant hanyou into goop at his, or perhaps her, feet. The person grabbed me, pulling me off into the woods, sheltering me against an armored chest, holding me with an arm, wrapping me in fur. I looked up into a face with amber eyes, framed by light hair, and said, "Inuyasha, you're…alive."

As soon as the words escaped my mouth, I fell into a deep unconsciousness, deeper than any sleep I had ever felt. In the back of my mind, I knew that INuyasha was dead, as dead as can be, and that whoever had saved me, whoever was holding me, was NOT Inuyasha, for Inuyasha lie motionless in that clearing, his father's fang a mile away from him, he would never move, never fight, never kiss me, never hold me, never love me again.

But I lived in a dream for a while, and in this dream, Inuyasha had saved me, after miraculously coming back to life(again), and he was holding me, kissing me, asking if I was alright.

I wish I had stayed in that dream, because soon enough, I woke, lying between furs in some cavern, with bandages wrapped around me and an older demon healer kneeling next to me. There was a fire in a hearth not far from me, and across that fire, sitting there in all his perfect glory, was Sesshoumaru. He looked at me, regarding me coldly, even if he was so very, very inhumanly beautiful.

"Miko, you have been healed by this Sesshoumaru's healer," he told me. "You owe me a debt."

Of course, this is Sessoumaru, and he _would_ ruin the façade with words like that, and I, being the independent person I am, would rise to the occasion. "I don't owe you anything!"

Sesshoumaru glared at me, his eyes piercing through mine and into my soul. I hated it when he did that. "You owe this Sesshoumaru a debt, miko, one you will repay."

"You only saved me, you wanted to kill Naraku anyway, the fact that I distracted him should be your payment.."

Sesshoumaru snorted. "I saved you, your friends, and got some enjoyment out of it. I will not deny this, but you owe me your life."

I glared across at Sesshoumaru, begrudging him the fact that he was right, I did owe him my life, however badly I wanted to deny it. I stared at Sesshoumaru as the woman walked over to him, kneeling at his side and whispering in hushed, but worried tones. Her eyes continually flickered toward me. At the end of her speech, Sesshoumaru's eyes widened, his eyes flicked over to me, and I swear I could see his ear twitch as if to hear something in my direction better.

He said something in low tones, his eyes narrowing at the woman, his voice rising to where I could barely hear him.

"Are you certain of this, woman?" he asked.

She nodded minutely. If I hadn't been paying so much attention, I would have missed it.

"And you are sure of its cure?" he asked again. My ears hurt from straining to hear him.

I could hear the woman's sentence clearly, though it was muffled, the words quieter than I thought possible for me to hear. "Yes, my lord, the poison has entered her veins to a point where not even I can save her. She will die within the next few weeks, even with the ointment I have given you, unless she is mated to a youkai with venom running through his bloodline, and through his fangs."

"And how will this save her?" Sesshoumaru asked, his eyes flicked toward me again. He had probably heard my heart rate pick up even from as far away as he was.

I couldn't hear a lot of what she said, but what she did say gave me enough to fill in the blanks. I heard. "Bonding…causing immunity to venom…protection from…mate and less powerful…only thing…cure her."

_Bonding with a powerful venomous youkai will release his blood into her veins, causing immunity to venom in order to provide protection from the venom of her mate and less powerful youkai. This is the only thing that will cure her._

Sesshoumaru turned his head towards me. I could see the curiosity his eyes held. I half expected him to turn to the woman and say, "Well, too bad, she's going to die." But I knew better. Sesshoumaru is a very determined person. If he saved you, you were going to live, no matter the cost. If he wanted you dead, you would die, no matter where you tried to run or hide. It was inevitable.

So the question I knew was running through his head was "Where will I find her this mate?"

As soon as the healer left, Sesshoumaru came over to me. He pulled me to my feet, putting a full kimono and some sandals in my hands. I looked up at him. "I don't know how to put these on," I told him truthfully. I'd never put on a traditional kimono before.

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes, and maneuvered me around, putting the clothing on over the bandages. The last tie he couldn't do. The knot could only be done with two hands. Or so I thought. With a grace and speed acquired by practice, he tied the knot.

Then he turned and began to walk away. When I did not follow, he looked back at me. I took a few quick steps to stop to his right, just behind me. He moved me to his left, and I sent him a questioning look.

"The right is customarily the mate's position for a inu-youkai's pack." The daiyoukai told me.

I nodded. "Where are we going?"

"This one is taking you to a council meeting. Hopefully, we will find a powerful, venomous mate for you there, miko. After all, a hybrid is usually desirable, as the children will have the purity of the mother, and the impurity of the father mixed together. Your child will be guaranteed much power."

I looked at the floor for a few moments and contemplated this.

"And what happens if I do not find a suitable mate there?" I asked.

He glanced over his shoulder at me, assessing me. "Then this Sesshoumaru shall mate you," he told me.

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	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Sesshoumaru flew me to this so called council, keeping me close as he flew off into the woods, away from the cave, away from the woman who stood at its entrance, her face worried, her hand clutching at the side of the mouth. As we flew off, she seemed to just disappear, along with the opening in the side of the mountain.

I have no idea how long we flew. I must have dozed, as it seemed that we were landing almost instantly after taking off. There was no wait.

"Where are we?" I asked, feeling quite stupid. We were in front of a large building. It reminded me of a few of the castles and mansions that I'd been to with Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku, but it felt so much…darker. Like a lot of demons, only contained in a drop of water. But they couldn't be that concentrated in this place, could they. It was so big!

"This is the council building. I have rooms here. You will be sleeping in a room adjacent to mine, where Rin usually stays," he said. Sesshoumaru always seemed so quiet. Like a silent but deadly force. I guess that's why they called him the Aristocratic Assassin. Not only was he silent, but he was very, very powerful.

I compared Sesshoumaru's power to the size of the building, trying to get a picture of what I might see inside. He usually burns my senses a bit, making me feel like my vision, my sense of smell, or even my hearing are off. The building in front of me seemed like ten, maybe fifteen Sesshoumarus and they were so close together I nearly met my breakfast.

My stomach growled. Or would have met my breakfast had I had any.

Sesshoumaru stepped into the building, looking back over his shoulder at me. "Come, miko."

"I have a name, you know," I muttered. No human would have been able to hear me, but I knew without a doubt that Sesshoumaru had. It was inevitable.

"Then what is it?" he asked, quietly.

"My name is Kagome," I told him, "Ka-go-me."

As soon as I finished the sentence, my eyes began to water, I gasped and I stopped for a few seconds, my heart constricting. The last time I had said that, I had been lecturing Inuyasha, as I often did. The thoughts broke my heart even more.

We had decided to get married later, and we hadn't mated the demon way yet. We wanted to see how things would work out, if we were meant to be. I had just come back from the Future with my diploma, and I was worried that more might have changed than I had thought. So we lived in a small hut next to Kaede, caring for her and helping her whenever it was needed, and we made sure that the surrounding villages were safe from any demons, or stupid monks, witches, and spirits. Miroku and Sango still helped with those, though sometimes they couldn't be bothered. Sango was busy with her second pregnancy, and Miroku was busy with Sango.

I regained my composure and followed behind the now moving Sesshoumaru. He looked back at me, seeming confused. I wasn't sure how I was going to do this. I felt like I was betraying Inuyasha, but I still had the will to live. I still had the need to live. It was just human instinct. No matter how different I might be because of my being from the future, and the fact that I am a miko, I was still human.

I followed dutifully behind Sesshoumaru into the halls. "How many people are here?" I asked.

"None," Sesshoumaru answered.

"How many _demons_ are here?" I asked.

"Twenty," he said. "Maybe more."

Twenty? There were that many demons? Wow, Sesshoumaru was even more powerful than they were.

"How long do I have?" I asked, even though I already knew. I needed someone to remind me.

"Two weeks," he said. "Or the mating bond will not set in with enough time to spare to stop the poison."

"Is this possible?" I asked him.

"Yes," he said. "Demons do not move as slowly as humans when we take a life-mate. We take them for power, for durability, for their fertility. You are very powerful, you've survived through a war, and as a human, you are very, very fertile."

I glared at him. "Gee, thanks. Don't you guys care about attitude, character, beauty?" I asked irritably.

"Of course. You are beautiful, so that will bring even more males to you," he told me honestly.

I thought for a moment, then remembered something I had wanted to ask for a while. "Do you have a potential mate?" I asked.

Sesshoumaru looked back at me. "Yes," he said.

I smiled. "Is she beautiful? Is she intelligent? Is she powerful?"

"She is…pretty, but not beautiful, not very intelligent, and there are very, very few as powerful as this Sesshoumaru."

I rolled my eyes. "Are there any who are as powerful as you?"

"Yes."

"Who?"

"The other lords."

"Any _females_ I mean."

"Only one."

"Who?"

"You, but you have always been my brother's bitch."

I looked over at him. "Don't call me a bitch."

"It is what you are," Sesshoumaru told me. "Now be silent, woman."

We were entering a large room. There were beautiful paintings, mostly of demons, perhaps the lords, all over the walls. I recognized the Dog General in one of the paintings from a water color that Myoga had once shown us.

Everyone turned to stare at us. The good, the bad, and the obscenely ugly.

"Sesshoumaru," someone began. "Why do you bring a human female, a miko, no less, into our midst?"

Sesshoumaru answered clearly, calmly, and coldly. "I bring her because she is the miko who defeated Naraku, the most powerful miko of all, and because she is of mating age. She is ill, because of a recent, unexpected confrontation with a resurrected Naraku. She has been poisoned, and is in need of a venomous mate to save her life."

The council stared at him. "Why did you offer her help?"

"Because she once saved my life, and now I must return the favor," he said.

"Why?" another asked. "She's just a human. If she's so savory, then you mate her."

"Do not forget," a voice came from the back, "that Sesshoumaru's father agreed to a mating between our children. Do you forget your duties so easily, Sesshoumaru?"

"No, Lord Daiki, I have not forgotten," Sesshoumaru said. "The mating is the reason I have not yet mated the miko."

"Then why is Emi not yet mated and pregnant?" Lord Daiki said, coming into the light. He had sickly pale skin, and dark, lank hair that hung down in curtains. He looked like someone on their death bed. He looked disgusting, and reminded me distinctly of what a person in a coffin looks like, stark white against the black surrounding them. The formal, old looking robes he wore did nothing to avoid the affect.

"Because, I have no desire to mate and have pups at this time." Sesshoumaru said. It was just then that I realized that he was using the ever elusive "me" pronoun. It shocked me that Sesshoumaru had dropped the entire, over the top "this Sesshoumaru" act.

"Well, I want grand children soon."

"Yes, but it will wait."

I could see what Sesshoumaru was really thinking in his eyes. They were flashing, and his lip was curled, just barely, in a perceivable sign of disgust. No one else in the room seemed to notice, but I was on high alert for anything here. Sticking a miko in a room of demons is a bad idea. Sesshoumaru's face read "I have not mated her because she disgusts me."

Or that's what it looked like to me. Perhaps to someone else, it would show something different. Maybe even a disgust for the father rather than the daughter.

Just then, a pretty, young female stepped up. "Sesshoumaru, please, just finish this. It would make me so happy."

She was…pretty enough, but her voice was annoying. Like the grating of two gears in a standard car when the clutch wasn't hit right. She made my ears hurt, and I could barely imagine what they did to poor Sesshoumaru's. She didn't seem to be very bright, she wasn't even looking at Sesshoumaru, she was looking at the air next to his head. Her aura was so weak, that it made me think twice about her bloodline. Her father may have been ugly, but he was powerful. The second most powerful being in the room, next to Sesshoumaru.

The fact that a powerful, albeit ugly, demon lord had a weak, but beautiful, daughter got the wheels turning in my head. Maybe I could help Sesshoumaru out of this one. As a snake demon, which I had begun to recognize the lord as, he wouldn't be able to smell the difference between his child and the child of another male. But perhaps Sesshoumaru, or a more bestial, but still sentient, demon could. If she were not his daughter, then Sesshoumaru would be off the hook.

I monitored their auras. They were a lot alike. Both were powerhungry, both had high hopes. But one was smart, scheming even, the father, obviously, and the other was stupid, dull, and faded, the daughter. Also, one had a dark green color that usually spoke of someone down to earth, and the other a bright yellow color that spoke of an airhead. Like me, but worse, stupider, even more unable to work properly. Honestly, the "family" in front of me had problems.

"Leave me be," Sesshoumaru growled. It was only now that I realized that I had been missing key parts of the conversation as I mulled over my thoughts. Sesshoumaru continued, saying "The miko and this Sesshoumaru will be in this Sesshoumaru's quarters, and you, Emi, are not to be seen anywhere nearby. Goodnight."

And with that he turned, calling "Come, miko," over his shoulder.

Geez, this was going to be a long night. If just being around her for this long made him crabby, I could only imagine what the next two weeks were going to be like. Oh joy.

We walked down a hallway for a long time before we finally came to a door with a crescent moon on it.

"Welcome to my rooms, miko."

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	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

When I entered Sesshoumaru's rooms, I was a bit surprised. There was a center area with sliding screens instead of walls. One lead to a large back room and two led to two medium sized rooms. The larger room also had sliding doors instead of walls. Off to one side was an indoor hot-spring, on the opposite side was a smaller room, perhaps for when he had children, a nursery, maybe. The back sliding door led outside. The two medium rooms had walls, but the one on the right also had a door leading to the hot-spring.

Sesshoumaru endured my exploration stoically, just standing in the center room, or in the doorway of the room I was in. When I walked back into the center room, he sent me to the room on the right.

"This is the room you will be staying in, Mi-Kagome," Sesshoumaru said. His eyes were cold when I met them, but I could swear there was just a glimmer of…something there. It was probably amusement, or annoyance. He's always annoyed, though. Supposedly, if Sesshoumaru smiles, the world is about to suffer. If he ever smiles at me, I think I'll run. Or die of a heart attack. Either would be fine with me.

I stepped into the room. There was a futon lying out on the floor, and the walls had beautiful designs on them. There was a painting of a woman hugging a great big dog demon, her arms wrapped around a single foreleg. The dog had his nose buried in her hair, and there was a destroyed village surrounding them. Another painting had a dog demon playing with a litter of pups.

I turned to ask Sesshoumaru who these were, but when I looked he was gone. The sliding screen to his room was sealed, too, and though if I were at full capacity, and trained, I would have been able to break it, sometimes, people just need their privacy. Not that anyone in my family will ever realize that. Souta has broken into my room before just for the fun of it.

I went back to my room and lie down. Before thirty minutes had passed, I was asleep, and swept up into a world where Naraku had never existed, Inuyasha was alive, and we were married, and I had never been poisoned.

Dream worlds are just that: dreams, and I really need to learn to stop trying to live in one.

I awoke a few hours later. I was in so much pain, it felt as if my veins were on fire, my heart was a stabbing knife. Every nerve pulsed and crackled, as if I were being electrocuted, my stomach heaved, my head pounded, all I could see was a blinding, bright red, and all I could think was to try to reach air, even though my lungs were gasping so quickly it would not have helped.

If I could have screamed, I would have, but as it was, I could get no sound to escape my lips, no air to produce it. All I could do was stare wide eyed at the red, and writhe against the soft surface below me.

I could hear the screen slam open, and I could feel a cool hand touch me, trying to lift me up against a cool chest with the help of something soft, furry. There was something being forced into my mouth. A phial, filled with a nice-tasting, cool liquid that eased the pain coursing through me almost immediately.

I shivered, feeling really cold all of a sudden, and snuggled to the warm thing underneath me, burying my head in what felt like a neck, taking comfort in the arm that wrapped possessively around me. That didn't feel right. I released the excess power that had been building to fight the pain, and heard a gasp.

Before the world went black once more, I could feel that there were now two arms wrapped around me, cradling me like a kid, and comforting me.

The next morning, I woke up lying on something warm and breathing. I took my head off its chest to look at whoever it is I fell asleep on. Lo and behold, I was asleep on Sesshoumaru, who didn't look like he really minded. He was leaning back on one of my walls with me gathered on his chest. He was fast asleep, hugging me close. I could hear his steady heartbeat and the even breaths he was drawing.

It was then that I noticed something that had escaped me before. Well, two some things really. First, he had two beautiful, identical arms, and second that he didn't have a shirt on.

I tried to gently wake him, putting my hand on his chest. Sesshoumaru just slept on, so I slid my hand further up, rubbing his neck. On most dogs, this is taken as a threat unless it's from someone close to them. I thought he would wake up. All he did was tilt his head to the side, and I swear I could hear him whimper. I pulled my hand back, and this time, I knew I heard a whimper.

"Sesshoumaru!" I said, trying to wake up my…floor partner. Honestly, we weren't in bed, so I couldn't say bed partner, or futon partner either. Sesshoumaru's eyes snapped open. His grip on me tightening. He hid my head against his chest, as if trying to protect me, and I could feel him looking around every corner of the room. _He's looking for a threat,_ I realized belatedly.

He looked back down at me, then pushed me off of him, standing us both up.

"You are well, miko?" Sesshoumaru asked.

I checked myself over. "Yes."

Sesshoumaru looked down at himself, seeming to have just found something wrong with himself. He lifted his left arm, staring at it in disbelief. Or it could be something _right_ with himself.

"You healed this Sesshoumaru…" he trailed off.

I just nodded. It's not like I could really deny the fact, even if it was subconscious.

He looked down at me. "Thank you, miko, but it was unnecessary. This Sesshoumaru would have healed within the next few years. The arm had already started to regenerate."

I rolled my eyes. Common Sesshoumaru superiority complex. "I didn't do it consciously, Sesshoumaru, it was an accident. When I'm in pain, I automatically start building power in order to heal myself. You took care of that, so the excess had to go somewhere. It just decided to heal you instead."

Sesshoumaru tilted his head to the side, narrowing his eyes just a bit at me. It reminded me of a puzzled dog. I had to repress the urge to laugh. "I see," was all he said. Sesshoumaru may be the ice prince, but I always suspected that there was something else going on that he didn't want anyone to hear. I wonder if he was one of those people who had thoughts they would rather keep to themselves, then felt like smacking myself on the head. Of course he was. He was Sesshoumaru!

Sesshoumaru walked out of my room and into the main room, where there was a breakfast set out for us. There was also a phial filled with a strange liquid, not the same one I had drunk last night, on the table. Sesshoumaru smelled it before snorting and taking it with him out of the room.

He returned a short while later, with a shirt on. He looked over at me, and then raised an eyebrow. He gestured toward the table. "Eat."

I ate what was on the table. It was all nice. Sesshoumaru seemed to not want to eat anything. There was a covered plate in front of him, but I never saw him uncover it. When I asked if there was someplace I could wash up, he told me to use the hot spring in his room. When I got out, there was a brand new kimono waiting for me, with a white background that had Sakura blossoms and leaves scattered around.

I pulled it on. I tried to put it on the way Sesshoumaru had done the day before, but I was unsuccessful. I went out into his room, and, not seeing him, I moved into the main room.

He was sitting there with blood on his claws, still tearing apart the semi alive rabbit that had been in the covered bowl. He looked up at me before neatly cleaning off his claws and covering the rabbit with a white cloth. He looked up at me. "I did not expect you to be out so soon, mik-Kagome," he said. "Do you require any assistance?" he asked, after giving me an once-over.

I looked down at the kimono I had clutched around myself. It was untied, and if I hadn't grabbed it, it would be open, baring all I had to the world around me. I nodded.

Sesshoumaru rose from the table, and walked over to me. He pulled the obi behind me and tied it neatly before I could even have said, "Yes please."

He took a step back and I turned around to face him. "Sorry, I just don't know how to tie these," I said, smiling. I could feel myself blushing.

"Hn."

Sesshoumaru turned his back on me then, and he started to walk out of the room. "Come, miko, the council will be beginning soon. It's time for you to meet your potential life mates."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It seemed so odd, that sentence, especially put the way Sesshoumaru had done, but it was the truth. I was walking into a room to meet my potential husband. A husband I would only have a week and a half, maybe a bit more, to get to know before we were bound forever. That was the gist of this ordeal, no? I was going to marry a man, well, male, that I hardly got a chance to meet. This is a marriage right?

I couldn't help but ask before we walked in. "Sesshoumaru-sama, when you say mating, or a life-mate, it's like a marriage, and I'm meeting my future husband, right?"

Sesshoumaru nodded, then his eyes tensed a bit, as if he were thinking. "Yes, and no. Mating, and life mates, are different from species to species. A life mate to a inu-youkai, or a neko-youkai is permanent. They die, you die. Your mortality is shared, all of your abilities shared, and you may never take another to your bed, and never ever fall in love and become life mates with another. But for a snake, lizard, bird, or many other species, it is considered normal for one male to have anywhere from three to six females as life mates, and while their abilities are shared, such as their resistance to toxins, their life force is not. They are…separable."

I stood in shock, staring at Sesshoumaru, half because of all the information that he had just told me, and half because of the fact that Sesshoumaru, cold hearted, silent, aristocratic assassin, had spoken that much. It was amazing that the male had so many words stored in his memory. I guess my expression must have revealed my astonishment, because soon, I was being asked what was wrong.

"I've never heard you speak that much," I whispered. Sesshoumaru heard me.

"I believed you needed to know all of the truth," was all he said, before he turned and led me toward the council room. Just before he turned his back on me, though, I could swear I saw some emotion flit across his eyes.

Was Sesshoumaru, Demon Lord of the West, Aristocratic Assassin, The Killing Perfection, The son of The Great Dog General, the scariest son of a bitch(literally) that I had ever met, embarrassed?

No. It was impossible.

Wasn't it?

I caught up to Sesshoumaru and followed him through quite a few twists and turns in the hallways between his room and those of the council. Finally, we ended up outside those doors again. My stomach was twisting. Originally, I thought it was nervousness. I mean, after all, I was about to meet the most powerful, influential demons in this country. Hell, I was about to _marry_ one of them, though I didn't know who. It was after I realized that I wasn't feeling nervous, just a bit…daunted, that I realized what it was that really was going on. I was actually feeling physically ill because of all the concentrated demon energies on the other side. Had I been a weaker, less adaptable miko, it would have been even worse. I once heard that people could die from the sheer force of a greater Demon's power. Imagine what a weak miko would do in Sesshoumaru's presence. Scratch that. Don't imagine it. I just did, and now I wish I hadn't.

It wasn't very hard to hear them inside. They were talking loudly, and I felt sorry for Sesshoumaru and any other youkai with exceptional hearing. This must be torture for them. Like having someone repeatedly stab your ear drums with daggers, laced with poison and so thin, that the pain was that much sharper. Like a paper cut, but amplified.

When we walked fully into the room, Sesshoumaru took my arm gently and led me to a corner. It was brighter now in the room, and I could see the paintings on the walls even more clearly. When Sesshoumaru sat me down, I was surprised, and a bit angry to see that he purposefully sat me between him and Emi.

Gross. She was staring rather dumbly at me. She had a stupid smile on her face, as if she was trying to get on my good side, but there was a vindictiveness, a malice in her aura that told me something else. This girl was out to get me, and she thought she was going to get away with whatever she had planned. Like I wasn't miko enough to read her. "Hi, I'm Emi," she told me cheerfully.

Her voice made me jerk back a little. I could feel Sesshoumaru tense at the sound of her voice, and I could feel him flinch when she pronounced consonants.

"I know," was all I said in reply. The council meeting started as soon as the words left my mouth.

They spent hours going over all sorts of disputes.

One male said that a neighboring demon was overrunning the boundaries, and raiding a village that was in _his_ territory. He demanded that he get a part of any spoils the other male may have gained. Women, jewels, weapons, cloths. Any goods.

Then there was a dispute over whether or not they should begin allowing cat demons to mate with tiger demons. I would find out later that this was a great big argument. Essentially, you see, they are the same, but cat demons are considerably smaller, and weaker, and they lack the ability to adapt as easily as tiger demons. The council decided no. Maybe after more experimentation with the compatibility of their bloodlines, attributes, and abilities…

After that, there was an argument over what to do with the problem of rebelling Snake demons in the south. No one really seemed to bother very much with this argument, and unlike the two before, there were no fights breaking out. In the end, they decided to kill off the offending youkai. Only females and young under a certain age would be spared. The females because they could be mated and their opinions changed with a force by their mates, and children because they were young enough to learn.

Finally it was time for a break. During this time, Sesshoumaru sent for me to be brought some soup, and Emi went to go find her father. She just complained to him the entire time, and he nodded and stared off into space.

I finished off the soup pretty quickly, and it was just as the plate was taken away that the first of the males approached me.

He was attractive enough, with a curious marking around his left eye, an intricate pattern, and a cloud on the right side of his neck. His hair was long, but still shorter than mine, and a lot shorter than Sesshoumaru's flowing hair, and it was such a strange color. Unlike the silvery coloring of Sesshoumaru's hair, his hair was green. Not the green blondes achieve after too much time in the pool, but a deep green. Like…Saltwater, but darker. Like deep Saltwater, and not the kind dyed blue or tainted black.

He smiled at me as he sat down.

"Hello, Lady Kagome," he said. He had sat down in Emi's now abandoned seat, and he had his hands resting beside him, on either side. One was just barely touching my own fingertips.

"Hello," I told him.

"I am Isamu, Heir to the Northern lands," he said. He was still smiling warmly at me, and he was now tracing patterns across the back of my hand. "I hear you're seeking a poisonous mate."

I nodded dumbly.

"Well there aren't as many of us as you may have thought. I am a rather rare type of Tiger Demon. Honestly, I'm not purely tiger. The venom comes from a dragon demon somewhere farther up on our lines. Dragon demons can have children with just about anyone. They don't really care who they mate, as long as it warms their nest, they don't even care about _what _they mate."

He chuckled lightly then. I didn't know whether to laugh or not, so I just stayed silent, though I did feel myself smiling a bit.

"So I was wondering if maybe you'd like to meet me in the gardens tonight. I'm sure Sesshoumaru-sama can direct you towards the pond. It's rather beautiful this time of year. It's warming up now, and everything, including youkai, are about to go into their mating frenzies. Even the plants are waking up."

I smiled. "Sure, I'll go with you, Isamu," I told him.

It wasn't until he had started to walk away that my mind caught up with his words. A mating frenzy? Like when dogs, or cats, or cows, go into heat. I turned to ask Sesshoumaru about it. He was busy talking to someone, so I had to wait until that person had finished and had left before I could finally ask.

"Is there some kind of…spring mating time that youkai follow?" I asked, blushing.

Sesshoumaru nodded. "It is why this is actually the best time for you to be needing a mate."

"Will you go into heat?" I asked.

Sesshoumaru gave me a look like "What have you been paying attention to?" even though it was only a few twitches in his nose and eyebrow, and the change of the glint in his eyes.

"I'll take that as a no."

"Males do not go into heat, per se," he told me hesitantly. "We simply have a greater amount of lust. The smell of females in heat is what really causes the entire frenzy. It's simply the instinct to reproduce."

I nodded. I stared off into space. More males came to greet me. A snake demon, who was stunning, with a lithe, graceful body, pale, and with such contrasting dark hair and eyes, though he was set aside because I honestly didn't want to have to worry about who else he was screwing. I kindly declined his offer to speak in the library.

Next came a dog demon, one of Sesshoumaru's ambassadors for when he was not able to attend, a cousin. He was broad shouldered, with dark brown hair and light grayish eyes. He and I were set to meet for dinner in his room, after he had already assured me that he would be eating human food, though his lip curled a bit. He made it seem tolerable, but not preferred. It almost made me want to tell him to eat whatever he pleased, until I thought of the poor rabbit that Sesshoumaru had been eating in our room.

The third to come was a dragon demon. When he asked me out, I refused because of what others had told me. If a dragon demon could sleep around, there was no telling what he had caught. Demons could not feel the effects of a disease, but they could still carry it. If I were to mate him, it might pass something on to me. I rejected him outright, after he tried to grab my butt. Sesshoumaru nearly ripped his arm out of his shoulder. I pitied him, but it was his own fault.

After the last invitation I received that day had been rejected, the council meeting picked up where it left off.

There was some incident between two of the families present that needed to be resolved. Some female had gotten herself pregnant, and the family was demanding that the male take responsibility for his actions. Of course, the male denied that the female was carrying his child. When it was proven to be his, he was forced to swear an oath, guaranteeing the health and safety of the child and the female.

I got my inspiration for Project Rescue Asshole from Torture, or PRAT for short, from the incident. PRAT was to save Sesshoumaru, the Asshole, from Emi, the Torture. If it could be proven that Emi was in fact not the Lord's daughter, Sesshoumaru would not have to mate her. He would be free to go. It was all a matter of timing, and of having a supported case.

I decided I'd tell Sesshoumaru of my plan later, after asking him if he wanted to mate Emi, but before I had to meet Isamu. It wouldn't be that hard, would it?

When the meeting ended, I was still trying to find a way to bring it up. Sesshoumaru had had to help settle disputes and break apart fights for the duration of the meeting. Add the fact that Emi had hunted him down and hung around to try and spark a conversation(through me, I might add), and you had one grumpy daiyoukai.

Beautiful, I couldn't honestly think of a way I'd rather spend my day than to spend it trying to break up that happy little betrothal.

I felt cruel, but honestly, who wouldn't want to free even the most hated enemy from that…that…thing.


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, made this story one of your favorites/alerts, or even read to this point.**

**YOU ROCK MY SOCKS!!!**

Chapter 5:

It was difficult to try and start a conversation with one Lord Sesshoumaru even on a good day, and even when the conversation was something normal. To try and start a conversation about how to get rid of his mate after seeing him have a bad day, was an utter and complete hell. The roiling in my stomach from earlier, when I had been surrounded, was returning tenfold, and I felt as if I was soon going to meet my lunch. I had declined the dinner that had been offered me as a result. Sesshoumaru had raised an eyebrow to this. Apparently, it was expected that humans had to eat a lot to live, and that a sick human could eat their weight in food daily, without even breaking a sweat.

That little snippet, of course, came from two bird demon maids who had thought I could not hear them. Evidently, the term "twittering like a couple of birds" had not yet reached Japan. Those two females had been twittering like a couple of their species. It was all rather annoying, in reality.

I stared at the wall behind Sesshoumaru. He was reading a couple of scrolls that some lord or the other had sent him.

I honestly could not think of a delicate way of putting my questions, and the ideas that followed sounded harsh, brash, even in the confines of my own mind. I couldn't imagine what they would sound like when I voiced them. It really was a risky business anytime you conversed with Sesshoumaru, even if many did not know that.

Yeah, right. The entire world knew that, even if it was a subconscious acknowledgement.

Well, I might as well try to strike up the conversation, no? It might serve at least some purpose, even if that purpose was to speed up my own death.

I opened my mouth to speak when Sesshoumaru cut me off.

"Speak, girl. Your fear is a sour scent on the air. You are worrying over something," he said.

I sighed. Sesshoumaru is blunt, and it wasn't very hard to figure that out. "Well, you know about that girl, Emi, that you're being forced to mate?"

Sesshoumaru's lip curled, his eyes tightening. He nodded sharply in my direction, still not looking up from the scroll or putting it down, even as his claws began to glow. I was half-worried that he was going to melt the poor piece of paper.

"Well, what if she's not that Lord's daughter?" I asked. "Would you be forced to mate her then?"

Sesshoumaru's eyes darted up from the paper, and he stared at me for a few moments. "No."

I smiled. "Perfect, because there is no way that that girl is his daughter. He's…well, ugly, and she's pretty. He's smart, she's an airhead, and he's powerful, she's powerless. Also, their auras do not possess enough similar material for them to be truly blood related."

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed. "How will this all be proven?"

I smirked. Gosh, only a couple days, and Sesshoumaru's traits were already rubbing off on poor innocent me. "Well, at first I thought maybe you could scent her out, but that would not work. Is there a way you can publicly challenge her blood?"

Sesshoumaru nodded. "Evidence must be supplied."

"Well, I remembered this spell that a miko can use to track the parents of a child. This was created when villages were often pillaged. In an effort to make sure that orphans at least got to say good-bye to their parents, or if their parents were still alive, they could meet," I began. "All I need is a piece of her hair, or a drop of blood, or even a fingernail, and a mirror. It'll show everyone in the room who her parents are. It'll show her parents wherever they are."

Sesshoumaru looked at me for a few moments, and then nodded his head. "This can be arranged."

I smiled at him.

Phase I of PRAT(Project Rescue Asshole from Torture), was complete. We now had a method of rescue. Now all I needed was to gather materials for rescue and to execute the Rescue.

After I finished speaking with Sesshoumaru about that, it was time for me to go see Sesshoumaru's cousin, Ryouichi. Sesshoumaru escorted me to the demon's rooms. When Ryouichi opened the door, Sesshoumaru just seemed to disappear.

I walked in. It was smaller than Sesshoumaru's rooms, with only two rooms. There was the living area and the bedroom. I sat down at the table and waited. Ryouichi sat across from me.

When the food arrived, I ate a little bit, but I wasn't really hungry. When I sat back, I noticed that my companion was already done. He was just looking at me now. It was like I was some lab experiment that he had to dissect. It was really, really odd being a lab rat, I decided. If I ever went back to my time, I would never treat the zoo animals the same.

Finally, Ryouichi spoke. "Sesshoumaru's protective of you, Kagome," he told me.

I was startled. That was the last thing I thought I would hear from him. Honestly, why would Sesshoumaru care about me? "How so?" I asked.

"He escorted you here, even though he knows you can handle yourself," Ryouichi said softly. He was a rather quiet person. Not scary quiet, like Sesshoumaru, a comforting quiet. "I've only ever seen him look at two other people that way. One was that ningen that he adopted, and the other…the other was his mother."

I was honestly shocked. What was going on here?

"So?" I asked. "Maybe he just feels he has to take care of me."

Ryouichi shook his head. "No, that's not it, little one, that's not it." He smiled at me then, and we started talking about other things. "I don't think I'll be able to court you, my lady."

When I walked out of the room, Sesshoumaru was standing there, waiting for me. He lead me to the gardens, where I was supposed to meet Isamu. "How long were you there?" I asked him.

"Long enough," he answered.

We got to a rather large, open garden then. It was beautiful, there was a Sakura tree in the corner, and a little stream ran through the entire garden, with bridges built over it, and there were growing things everywhere. There were tiny waterfalls with coi gathering at the bottom of them. I looked around at everything. It was so breathtaking.

I was too busy paying attention to the garden, however, and not who was in it. Sesshoumaru had disappeared again. Probably off to kill some more bunnies. No, wait, scratch that. Sesshoumaru's cruel, but I've never see him kill needlessly. Isamu had come up behind me, and he grabbed my hand while I was standing there staring. "Beautiful, isn't it?" he whispered in my ear.

I jumped a bit, but nodded. "Yes, the garden is absolutely wonderful," I told him.

"It looks even better now that you are around."

He began to trail kisses down the side of my neck then. I stepped away, shocked, before I remembered.

"_Demons do not move as slowly as humans when we take a life-mate"_

Isamu smirked, moving closer. "Now come on, koi, it's not like I'm a human. We don't take years to take what we want."

He came closer to me, and pulled me towards him gently.

"But I can be considerate," he said. "I will not do anything you do not wish me to."

The rest of the time I spent with Isamu, all we did was talk, sitting on a bench in the corner. He had his hand on top of mine. The only kissing he did after the incident was a kiss on the forehead when he told me goodnight.

That night, I settled into my futon and thought about my only remaining offer. I had to take it, unless someone else stepped up. I mean, honestly, it wasn't like I had all the time in the world, now was it.

The next morning, I woke up and went to eat breakfast with Sesshoumaru.

I looked over at him as soon as I finished what had been laid out for me. "So, I suppose you heard what your cousin told me last night?" I asked.

Sesshoumaru looked up at me. "Parts."

"Well, it looks like I've only got one choice now, huh?" I said. "Only one eligible person, and that's Isamu." I tried to sound happy, but I wasn't. Isamu wasn't my type.

"There are three, miko. There is one you have not met yet, Isamu, and then there is this Sesshoumaru."

I looked at Sesshoumaru, puzzled. "You aren't eligible, for one thing, because of your pending mating to Emi. And for another, you don't like me enough to mate me."

"Mating has nothing to do with 'like' or 'love' or anything of that sort. Demons simply look for a compatible mate who will bring them powerful pups."

I looked at him. Emi still stood, however.

As if reading my mind, Sesshoumaru took that exact moment to say: "Eri will be out of the picture shortly. It will be simple enough now to prove that Eri is in fact not the Lord's daughter. Her mother did sleep around, like any of her species."

I nodded. Okay, that was weird, but it did make sense. Sesshoumaru probably just used logic to guess what I had been thinking.

When we entered the council room that day, everyone took a seat, and an elderly youkai stood up. We had missed this part the past few days, I noticed. After reading off a list of announcements, mostly by council members concerning the mating status or whether or not their families were throwing a party, he asked a question I think Sesshoumaru had been waiting for, as he had been tensing up a bit.

"Are there any topics to discuss today?" the old male said.

Sesshoumaru stood up, "This Sesshoumaru would like to question whether or not Lord Daiki is Emi's father."

Lord Daiki stood up. "What sort of question is that?"

"A valid one," said Sesshoumaru icily.

The council member nodded his head. "How will this be tested."

Sesshoumaru looked around, and I stood up.

My heart clenched almost painfully clench in my chest as everyone turned to look at me. "There is an old miko spell that takes something of the child's, a strand of hair, nails, something they held close, and tracks the parent. The parent is shown in a reflective surface, usually a pail of water, but a mirror _should _work."

Everyone in the council room stared.

"What is required for this spell?" the council asked.

"Just a mirror and a piece of hair, that's all I need. It will only take an hour."

The council member looked around. "Are there any more topics?"

No one said a word, they were all staring at us.

"Well, then, everyone except Lord Daiki's family, the Miko, Sesshoumaru, and the usual judges may leave.

The only people who stayed were the subjects, Sesshoumaru, and two men I didn't recognize. The elderly man stood next to those two men. They began to speak quietly to each other. I was sure that it had something to do with either me or Sesshoumaru, or perhaps even both of us.

A servant was sent to go get a knife and a mirror. The mirror was set up against a table, and the knife handed to me. I walked over to Emi. "I'm sorry," I whispered.

"For trying to steal Sesshoumaru?" she hissed.

Is that what she thought I was doing? Oh, goodness, no!

"No, I'm not trying to steal Sesshoumaru-sama," I told her. "I'm sorry for having to cut your hair."

She snorted. "It will grow back."

I took a lock of hair and went back to the mirror. I held the hair in my hand, trying to pull up the power. Eventually, the mirror began to glow, and in the mirror, a man was shown. He was cleaning a room in some place I'd never seen. Behind me, Lord Daiki cursed. He had begun to hiss, I realized.

With a roar, he turned to Emi. "Go home, and tell your…._mother_… that she, the servant, and you can get the HELL out of my manor before I kill you all.

Emi took a few staggering steps back. I was in shock. I had expected it to be another lord, or perhaps some other rich person. Sesshoumaru's eyes were tight.

Emi ran from the room. The council members were staring. I felt a sudden stab of pity, and I couldn't help myself as my feet carried me in the direction the other girl had just traveled. I found myself outside a door I'd never seen before, and I could hear the sobs coming from inside. I slid the door open and went to Emi. I grabbed her hand and wiped her face off with my sleeve.

"I'm acidic, you're going to ruin the kimono," she said.

"Who cares? It's not even really mine."

Emi cried out then. "But it will be!"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not into the entire 'Lady' whatever thing." I said softly.

Emi looked at me. "I knew, you know. I knew he wasn't my father. All I want is to be Lady."

"Well, you're not, and there are millions more out there who aren't."Emi growled at me.

"Why are you even here?"

I shrugged. I took the bag she had been filling, and put all the kimonos I could grab in it. "Here. You can sell these to keep yourself from going hungry." I shoved the bag at her and tried to help her up. It was as I was trying to help her to her feet that I felt a dark, angry presence at my back. I fully expected to turn and see Lord Daiki, but I was pleasantly surprised when I turned to see Sesshoumaru.

"Hi, Sesshoumaru," I said, blushing and smiling nervously. He felt murderous, more murderous than I had ever felt him, which was very, very murderous.

Sesshoumaru glanced at my hand on Emi's forearm. "Unhand her, miko, she is below you."

I looked at him, shocked. "She needs to get out of here quickly, Sesshoumaru-sama."

He glared at Emi, then pulled her roughly the rest of the way to her feet before grabbing my hand and pulling me toward him. When Emi ran from the room, he whispered in my ear, "never help someone below you again. You must be taught quickly, for if this Sesshoumaru or any other lord decides to mate you, you would disgrace him to help a servant. As this one has already decided to court you, it is my responsibility to teach you."

I stared at him, in even more shock than before. I opened my mouth to ask why, and then his lips were on mine, and I couldn't talk, half because I was kissing someone, so my mouth was occupied, and half because I didn't want to break this kiss. I thought of Isamu's kisses, and how his gave me creepy-crawlies. They were wrong. These were oh so right.

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	6. Chapter 6

**Here you go. For anyone who wanted a little lemon, there's a small snippet at the beginning. For anybody who doesn't want to read it, start where it stops being italicized, there will also be bold text saying something like "END." The rating on this story has OFFICIALLY gone up.**

_I watched the male over me move in and out, in and out, and I could feel it, so wrongfully, sinfully pleasurable. It was like a need, not a want, and I needed to find out where it would end. I couldn't tell who it was, just that what was happening felt so dang…good. Not like losing your virginity is supposed to feel at all. I felt no pain, I saw no blood. _

_He grunted in my ear, laying a kiss behind it and then trailing soft, sweet kisses downward, to the hollow of my throat, kissing my breasts and licking them. He moved back up and kissed me fully on the mouth, groaning. He tasted like cinnamon, sugar, and something I couldn't quite place. A little sour, and while I thought that should be nasty, it tasted oh so delicious. I could feel a coil in my stomach. Not tightening, per se. More like it was pulsing, growing a lot tighter, but then releasing a bit. Like a strong spring, when you press it more and more each time, until you can't press it anymore and it just snaps out of your hand, going off someplace else._

_I was fully anticipating that release. The male above me raised blood red eyes to meet my own, opening them for the first time. He growled lowly, and kissed from my nose downward, before reaching the junction between my left shoulder and my neck, where he teased my with nips and kisses, and even a few bites. I felt myself tighten even more._

_It was just before I felt like I was going to blow that he sunk his fangs in…_

**And that's when I woke up.**

I woke with a start, sitting bolt upright in bed, feeling hot and sweaty. It wasn't a very comfortable feeling. Neither was the feeling of emptiness, of wanting, of overall desire that I felt. It was horrible. I wanted to find that male and make him do what he had done in that dream to me, but I knew it was impossible. So I went back to sleep, curling up on my side.

The next dream I visited was just as racy, but I knew it was not mine. For one, I do not dream of being in silk sheets, wearing a kimono half on one shoulder, and nothing underneath, and I certainly don't dream of looking at an unidentifiable male, straight in the eyes and saying inconsequential things while he whispered them back to me.

I woke from that one very quickly, too. The third was even worse. I was straddling someone in a garden, kissing down his chest…

I woke with a start. Goodness! Couldn't people take care of their own dream selves? Why was I being brought into these dreams? Oh, that's right, demons usually do not sleep around humans because their dream worlds bleed over onto everyone else's who is involved, and if a human dies in a demon's dream at that demon's hand, it has been known to actually cause death in real life. But only when it's a Daiyoukai. A regular youkai can make them sick, but not kill them.

I sighed as I got up out of the futon, making my way into the main room. Sesshoumaru had hinted that I was allowed to use his hotspring at any time, without consequences, and I thought I would take him up on that offer. That is, until I walked in on him doing something I thought he was too proud to do.

I tried to turn around and get out of the room before he noticed me, but he must have smelled me. He grabbed me from behind and pulled me towards him. Somewhere along the way, he must have pulled the sleeping pants back up. He pulled me close, using both arms to hold me against him. I could feel everything through the two layers of silk separating us. He brought his nose to my hair and inhaled.

"Why are you in this Sesshoumaru's room in the middle of the night?" he asked.

" I was going to go take a bath," I told him. "I'm sorry for interrupting…"

He growled, lowly, then shoved me in the direction of the baths before turning and walking out of the door and into the cold night air outside in his private garden.

I took my bath quickly, using some of the soaps set against the wall. When I went past the partition where I took off my clothes, there was a beautiful, blue sleeping kimono waiting for me. I walked out of the room and into Sesshoumaru's bedchamber. I looked out into the garden outside, where he was swimming, butt naked, in the cool stream. I'd always heard that helped, but I'd never heard of someone doing that in a river. I walked out and went to sit on a boulder near where he was.

"I'm sorry," I said, blushing.

Sesshoumaru looked over at me. "It is…not your fault."

I could tell he was hesitating. "I had the strangest dream-"

"I know," he growled. "I could smell it."

It was only then that I noticed his eyes were closed. I got off the boulder, and knelt next to the stream. "Geez, what's got you all grouchy?"

Before I could blink, I was pressed up against the boulder by a naked, growling Sesshoumaru. "What do you think?" he asked, his eyes blood red in my face. "Mating season has started and there was a bitch enjoying a dream in my rooms. Then I was interrupted…" but Sesshoumaru got silent, looking off to the edge of his garden. There was a shape getting closer. "And now the fights have begun. I'm guessing young Lord Takumi has arrived, as there is more than three…" he growled showing fangs to the approaching male.

I noticed Isamu's features, screwed up with rage and with whiskers coming off his upper lip, curled back over fangs. He growled right back at Sesshoumaru, with a roar at the end of it. Behind him, I could see Sesshoumaru's cousin. Maybe he was just here for the fight, or maybe for his last chance.

When Sesshoumaru charged Isamu, I didn't notice the person behind me until he had pulled me back against him. I screamed, and all three of the other males turned to face me. Whoever grabbed me had his hand over my mouth. It was annoying. I bit down, and he hissed, licking the side of my neck. Sesshoumaru darted in and pushed him away, pulling me towards him and putting me up on the boulder. His eyes were fully red, with the markings getting jagged, and his face was lengthening. He was ready to change. I looked around. All four of them were.

I looked around. I knew that in the animal kingdom, males fought for dominance and for mating rights. I had forgotten just how like animals youkai were. Now I regretted coming here.

"It's ironic, Sesshoumaru, you never protected the woman you were supposed to mate, but you tease us with this woman, then stand in front of her when we come for her?" the male I could not recognize growled from off to one side.

Sesshoumaru growled at him. "The bitch is mine," he told them.

I knew I should have been insulted, since they were fighting over me, almost as if I was some piece of meat, or one of the land disputes that had been taking place in the council. But I was too tired, and I sort of thought this was another dream. So I settled back on the rock and waited patiently.

I watched as Sesshoumaru stood in front of me, protecting me from the males that were approaching him. First, Isamu came forward, trying to hook extendable claws into Sesshoumaru's groin, but missing. He hit the boulder behind Sesshoumaru as Sesshoumaru sailed through the air to land behind him, kicking him into the male that had tried to rush up to me. I jerked back, pulling my feet up to my chest. I wished, silently, that I had a bow and arrows. I could subdue them all and seal them to trees until the mating season was over.

As it was, I was the poor, damn, damsel in distress that I'd always prided myself on not being, and I was enjoying it. I didn't notice it at first, but it felt good to be desired. And not in the Kouga's throw himself at me until I relented fashion, but vying for my attention fashion.

So I sat back and watched as they all tried to reach me, and Sesshoumaru threw them all back, occasionally sneaking glances in my direction, and I was reminded of Buyo, when he brought me a mouse, or a bird, and looked at me to see if I liked it, while he puffed out his chest and cat-smirked at me.

It looked so much better on Sesshoumaru than it ever would on my cat.

**READ AND REVIEW. Don't worry, this is NOWHERE near the end, just the end of the beginning. This story'll be at least 20 chapters long, I think, and I'm already planning a sequel.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Same warning as last chapter, if you don't like lemony goodness, skip the parts that have bold warnings and are in italics, until you get to the part that says end, or "I woke up" the first italic is a memory, not a lemon, so don't wonder why there isn't a warning the second **_**is**_** a lemon, be warned. I do not own Inuyasha or any affiliated characters. I do own my laptop, my ds, my light, and my fuzzy dice. I don't know if I own the kite tacked to the wall, or if it still technically belongs to my cousin.**

Chapter 7

I'd never seen Sesshoumaru fight as he was fighting right now. For one thing, he was the only male without armor, or even clothes. He was fully in the nude, and with the way he was tearing up the others' clothes while he battled them, he was going to have four nude males surrounding me in no time. It was rather…interesting to think of.

The first thing I noticed about Seshoumaru was that he had silver hair everywhere, and that the stripes also went across his hips and right under his pecs. The brilliant magenta color contrasted nicely with the paleness of his skin. The third thing that I noticed is that he never lost his balance, or his footing. It was like he was a dancer, not a fighter, and he was simply toying with the other dancers on the floor.

I think he did it on purpose, to tease the poor males around him, who lost footing frequently, even though Sesshoumaru was visibly in more of a rage than they were. Rightfully, it should have been Sesshoumaru losing his footing, falling back on his butt. He had lost his cool, but even as they tore at him, he was the ever graceful, ever beautiful aristocratic assassin. Sesshoumaru was beauty at its best.

He danced behind his cousin, taking the feet out from under the male, growling at him as he tried to reach for Sesshoumaru. Isamu reached out to grab me and a light whip came across his face, slapping him back, making him stagger a few steps backward. Sesshoumaru darted forward, put me more securely on the boulder, and kicked Isamu backward so quickly I could barely stop it.

It was about this time that I remembered something Inuyasha had told me a long time ago.

"_Be lucky I'm not a full youkai," Inuyasha told me. "They fight over a female, and keep fighting till someone mates her. They all fight to get to her, and she teases them and teases them, always running just beyond their grasp. Then, one mates her, and the others leave. The more powerful the female, the longer and harder the fight, and the more powerful the female and the male, the more powerful the cubs. It's just the way it works…" he had just stared me in the eyes. "Keh, like it really matters. Just don't go near youkai in heat."_

Like I had much of a choice…

If that was true, why hadn't Sesshoumaru just bitten me? He had certainly had enough opportunities, with him being much faster, and stronger than his opponents. It was as he came to be by me again that I realized four things. One, Sesshoumaru's beast had taken over, two, he was teasing the other males, three, he wanted to prove himself to me, and four, he was waiting for me to approve of him. He was actually asking my permission, in his own sick, twisted, apathetic, Sesshoumaru way.

He tore the new male off the boulder, throwing him into a wall, and snarled at him.

I honestly don't know why I let them fight. I guess it was the amazement that they would actually want to fight over little old me. I don't know, it could have been anything, really. I always have been the odd one, ne? It was rather like watching a train wreck: you didn't want to watch it, but you couldn't help but feel fascinated, and you watched anyways, transfixed to the spot.

I watched, hypnotized, as someone tried to jump Sesshoumaru, claws extended. _Ohhh…bad move. Inuyasha used to try that one._ I felt my heart clench a little at the thought, just as Sesshoumaru ducked out from under the other male's attack and dug his own claws into the offender.

Sesshoumaru glanced at me once more before charging into the male in front of him, Isamu, I realized, and punched him through the wall, and into someone else's rooms. I noticed the painting and realized that he was in _my _room. I sighed. At least traditional houses have easy enough to repair walls and doors. Sesshoumaru ran up to the male and drew back his hand, focusing acid into his fingertips, and holding the other male down, his hand formed a point, and I realized what he was going to do. I darted forward, running around a fallen, unconscious male, and trying to keep out of the reach of the other. I grabbed Sesshoumaru around the waist and held him. "Stop, Sesshoumaru," I pleaded quietly, the male behind me had stopped, waiting to see the outcome. Isamu's wide, red eyes were glaring at Sesshoumaru.

"What will you give this one in return," a voice growled. It was only because I felt his chest rumble that I knew it was Sesshoumaru.

"For one thing, I won't call you 'Lord Fluff' behind your back anymore," I tried to joke. Isamu growled an then choked as Sesshoumaru tightened his grip.

"Something else is what I want, bitch," the male underneath my hands ground out.

Isamu's eyes began to fade, and he looked around frantically, the male behind me chuckled, thinking that his competition had been destroyed, and that he was getting a better shot. I looked at Isamu, and I saw a myriad of faces appear before me. Souta, at five, the first time he had gotten his head stuck between the bars of the steps. Shippou, caught in the tentacles of a demon, Souta at six, coming home for the first time all black and blue, worried that mom would get mad. I saw panic, and fear, and I couldn't help but to want to help him out.

It wouldn't be so bad, mated to Sesshoumaru, I decided.

I buried my face in his neck, "I'll do anything you wish, Sesshou-"

But I never got to finish my sentence. He picked me up, my legs wrapping instinctively around him, and carried me into the rooms we had been staying in. He had his lips on mine, and I couldn't really protest against it. He took me into his room, which miraculously had not been damaged, and laid me down on the futon, then he bit me, right where he had in the dream, and I realized it had been him I had dreamed about the other night. I expected him to want to do…well, you know, while he bit me, like in the dream, but he didn't. He just took a claw and slit the skin near the vein on the throat, where he was still biting me. His hands pushed my mouth toward the cut, and I couldn't help myself as my tongue darted out to clean up the mess he had made of himself. I licked up the blood on his neck, finding pleasure in it. It was comforting, not sexual. More like coming home after being away for months, and rushing into your mother's arms.

Sesshoumaru held me close until his bleeding stopped, and then my vision blurred. I felt like I was beginning to drift, and I realized why Sesshoumaru had laid me down before starting anything. He knew I was going to get so dizzy, so sick, and so worried. He left me there as he went to go get something. He came back with a bowl filled with ice cold water and a cloth. He rubbed me gently on the forehead, and then I was gone, floating on his youkai cloud, only we weren't flying fast, only flying, and he was holding me close, whispering sweet nothings in my ear, and making promises, all in that same rough voice of his, but not in a mean or apathetic way. There was some underlying emotion, not exactly happy, but definitely happier than his usual tone.

Right before I woke, I noticed what this emotion I could hear in his voice was. Love, and just before I woke up, I heard the words, "I love you, Kagome, and I don't know why."

I woke up laying against a hard chest, which rose and fell beneath my ear. There was soft fingers brushing through my hair, and a mouth was next to my ear, breathing in the scent just below it, the nose was buried in the hollow of my throat. I don't know how Sesshoumaru could be comfortable in this position. I stirred a bit and realized that he was still naked. I attempted to wriggle out of his arms but I got pulled back more firmly against him. Sesshoumaru stirred behind me, and he laid a few tender kisses to the side of my neck.

**!!!WARNING!!!**

_I could feel something hard poking into my back end where Sesshoumaru had pulled me back on top of it. He hissed and shuddered as I moved against it, and I realized that he must have been with me for hours. He began to kiss down my neck , to my shoulder, and then down my arm and to my hand, which he flipped over to kiss the palm of. He spun me around in his lap, pulling the sleeping kimono down a bit and nipping along my collarbone, sending just the right zings to all the right places. I bit my lip and tried not to make a sound as he trailed the kisses down from my collar bone, to my breasts, nipping at the nipples, and sucking lightly._

_I couldn't help it, I groaned, and I could feel something slippery forming between my legs. I could feel Sesshoumaru seem to twitch, and he groaned, before he released my boob and started kissing farther down. He began to remove the kimono, trailing hot, wet kisses from my navel down to my core, and I could feel a pulse seem to come off of him and into me. He groaned as he reached right above where the trimmed hair was. Yes, I trimmed. I may be living in the feudal era, but no one wants to look down in the morning and see Chewbacca looking up at them. _

_He trailed his claws up my inner thigh, bringing them to my core, teasing against the soft flesh there. He trailed up over the clit. Maybe being mated to Sesshoumaru wasn't a bad idea at all. For a guy that said he never got any, he sure knew his way around a woman. I put my hands in his long hair and pulled him toward me, kissing him fully on the mouth._

_Even though I knew all my warning bells should have been going off, I didn't care. All I cared about was the male underneath me, teasing me with his fingers, and his mouth. He kissed me as he slipped a finger in, then another. I began to feel a little uncomfortable, and gasped against his mouth. Sesshoumaru simply pulled the fingers out a bit and began to circle my clit with his thumb, all the while slipping his tongue into my mouth. Shyly, I reached between us to grab him lightly, he hissed and pulled back, shaking his head. "No, Kagome," he told me. _

_He added another finger, kissing me soundly on the lips. It was uncomfortable, but bearable. He stretched his fingers out a bit before moving away from my mouth, trailing wet kisses from the hollow of my throat to my belly button, where he paused, then he moved farther down, sliding down so that I was straddling his chest, leaning back a bit. He pulled my legs up and sat up so that I was lying on the futon, my feet up in the air, with his mouth at my entrance. He kissed me there, playing along the edges, before flicking the clit with his tongue, then trailing the long tongue over my entrance, dipping in. He repeated this a few times, till I felt like I would just burst, then he moved back up, kissing me on the mouth, over me once again, while his fingers moved down below. I came, and as soon as I did, Sesshoumaru pushed through with one clean thrust._

_He moved me so that I was spread wider, my eyes watered. It really did hurt, though it wasn't ripping, it still was an ache. I looked down to see a few drops of blood on the remaining part of Sesshoumaru's shaft. Looking down on it as it was inside, now, I could see the size of it, and I marveled at how it could fit. He was…very large. From the times I'd seen Inuyasha and Miroku naked, I could tell that he was larger than normal. Either that, or they were unusually small._

_It was nice to find little things to distract me. Sesshoumaru pulled back a bit, then pushed back in. He went slowly at first, allowing me to adjust, but I couldn't stand it anymore. I pushed myself up onto him. He groaned in my ear as his head dipped down. He licked the mark I hadn't known was there, and I felt myself gain some feeling of happiness, of giddiness._

"_Sesshoumaru," I whispered in his ear. Sesshoumaru tensed, and I could see his eyes bleed red. Then he began to move in earnest, and soon, I was screaming out my release while he growled out his._

**Okay, it's done. No more nasty smut.**

Sesshoumaru trailed a few kisses down my throat and down my belly before looking back at me. He picked me up and began to carry me to the hotsprings. "Weren't the walls damaged?" I asked.

"They were repaired while you were asleep," he replied. He took me into the actual water and set me on a kind of underwater shelf that I had never noticed before.

"How long?" I asked.

"Three days. He reached for the soap and shampoo like liquids near us, and began to wash me. I took the soap and returned the favor. It seemed like the right thing to do.

It occurred to me then that normally I wouldn't wake up wanting to just do someone, and I certainly didn't usually go through if I ever did. I wondered if it was part of the bite. I, as the curious person I naturally am, had to ask Sesshoumaru.

"Sesshoumaru?" I asked.

"Hn?"

"Was it necessary to...you know?" I asked, blushing, looking away.

Sesshoumaru nodded, looking me straight in the eyes. "One third of that was because of the new mating mark, as it constantly demands either renewal, or completion from those marked. The other two thirds were the fact that it is mating season, and you, just like any other female, went into heat."

I looked at him as I lathered the soap over his body. He was silent, even after he finished working on me and we switched positions so that he was seated on the shelf, and I was standing between his legs. I sat on the edge of the pool to wash his hair, and he leaned back against my hands, closing his eyes lazily. Once I had finished, I scratched idly behind his ear to get his attention. Sesshoumaru's eyes snapped open almost immediately. He groaned and growled in the same sound, and leaned into my hand, pushing his ear into it. I remember once when he had teamed up with Inuyasha and I, and I tried to touch his ears, and he almost took my arm off. Now he wants me to touch them? I rubbed over the tip and he groaned. Only when I giggled did he seem to notice what he had done. Sesshoumaru sat up and stood up, getting out of the pool, then he helped me get out of the water and onto my feet. When he turned his head, I noticed the rater large, deep blue mark on his left shoulder, where he had cut himself earlier. I gasped. It was a myriad of swirls over a single mark, a bow and arrow, crossed over each other. He turned when I gasped.

"Is there something wrong, Kagome?" he asked me.

I pointed dumbly at the mark on his shoulder. He looked down at it absently. "That is your mark. You are wearing mine, as well."

I tried to see the mark, but I couldn't. As if noticing what I was trying to do, Sesshoumaru pulled me behind the partition, to where there was a mirror, and two sets of clothes waiting. There it was a bright purple mark, a harsher, swirling, confusing mass built around a large crescent moon.

I stared at my own reflection, bringing my hand up to trace over the lines. I stood up. It wasn't like I could do much. I looked at Sesshoumaru for a few moments. "So what am I doing today?" I asked. Sesshoumaru held out the first layer of the kimono while he told me. I stepped in.

"Today, we leave, to go to my home and to rest for two months, then we return, when the heat has passed, and we are to inform the entire council that the Lord Sesshoumaru of the Western Lands has taken a mate, Lady Kagome, the miko." He told me.

I stared at the floor. "Can I go see my friends, and Shippou?" I asked.

Sesshoumaru looked at me, then nodded. "But should any of them try to make you stay, I will remove their head to reach you."

My head shot up as I stared at him. "Don't you dare, or I'll never speak to you again!"

Sesshoumaru raised his eyebrow. "Very well," he said. "I will not decapitate them, simply make it so that they are no longer a threat. But for right now, we must return to my den. We will stay there for at least two weeks."

I sighed, then nodded. Sesshoumaru grabbed a vial out of a nearby cabinet then, and I recognized it as the same vial that had been on that table the first morning we were here. He sniffed it, then popped the cork out of it. He poured it into a cup before turning to me. He slit his palm and put a little of his blood in before offering it to me.

I looked at it for a few moments, then looked back up at Sesshoumaru. "Do you expect me to drink that stuff?" I asked.

Sesshoumaru nodded. "You already share some of my more exotic abilities, as well as my immortality. This will ensure that any future children of ours will share that same immortality."

At first I wanted to smack him to tell him no, but then I realized that he may just be trying to protect his own future pups. I thought of how Inuyasha had always been treated, especially by those who knew there had been an alternative that had been ignored, and I took the cup from Sesshoumaru. I swallowed all of the bitter drink, and then coughed a few times, moving forward as Sesshoumaru moved to steady me, holding me tight.

When I had finished my spluttering, Sesshoumaru took me out into the main rooms. He took me out into the back garden, which had indeed been repaired since I last saw it, and pulled me close to him, taking off into the skies above. I looked up and felt as we sped up to a speed I never thought possible, and I didn't take my eyes off of him till we landed.

I stepped away from him and looked around.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" a little girl screamed. "welcome home!"

**It's done. Review, people. The actual story, excluding the lemon, is two thousand, four hundred, and seventy some-odd words long. Including lemons, excluding authors notes, it is three thousand, two hundred, and fifty-odd words long. **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Last chapter with lemon for another few chapters. DO NOT WORRY!! STORY IS NO WHERE NEAR DONE! IS KAGOME PREGNANT? HAVE THEY REALLY DEFEATED ANY BIG CHALLENGE? I don't like too short stories, so I don't like writing them. This story will be anywhere between 20-25 chapters long. If you don't want lemons, heed the bold warnings and the story parts that are a lot in italics. **

Chapter 8

I walked into the den behind Sesshoumaru, following him with Rin and Jaken, who had joined us later, behind me. Jaken was squawking about his lord allowing a human female here, and about how I should stop disgracing his master. Well, at least that's what I think he was going to say, but right as he got to the "d" in disgrace, Sesshoumaru's claws shot out and grabbed him by the throat, squishing his windpipe. Rin just kept humming; it seemed to be a daily occurrence here.

"_Never___insult this Sesshoumaru's mate," Sesshoumaru growled out, and then he drop kicked Jaken down the hall we had entered, at least 20 feet. A woman dressed in shabby servants' clothing stuck her head out. no, not a woman, I realized, a female, certainly, but a female youkai, not human. She looked at Jaken, then at Sesshoumaru, who growled. She ran out of the room with the laundry she had been collecting.

Sesshoumaru turned back to me, looking me in the eyes for a few seconds, before reluctantly switching his gaze to Rin. "Rin," he said simply. She looked back at him and giggled before running down the hall and into the room the female had just left. "Bye-bye! Kagome-sama!" she called, before she pulled into the room and slammed the door closed.

"I will lead you to our room," Sesshoumaru told me as he began walking down the hallway. We turned down a separate hall. I could see a garden through the window to my left. He took me down this hallway and to a heavy door. The entire house was Western style, obviously, as Sesshoumaru was Lord of the Western lands. I had always assumed his land ended with the western coast of Japan, but it must extend farther. The western end of Asia, perhaps? Certainly not the entire western quarter of the planet!

On the heavy door in front of us was a series of symbols I could not understand and a large crescent moon. There wood looked old, but sturdy. Sesshoumaru ran his hand over the door. He pulled back his hand and slit his palm with a claw before running the blood stained hand over the door again.

"This process only has to be done once every once in a while, when I put the proper ward in place," he said. "It is not common that I do this, but I was unsure how long I would not be visiting my quarters. I do not like anyone coming into my rooms."

I cocked my head to the side. "Alright."

He opened the door with his right hand, ushering me in gently with the left.

I sat on the edge of a table, and Sesshoumaru glared at me. I sank to the floor, on my knees. He looked pleased, and he even smirked, but he brought me to my feet and sat me down in his lap while he sat in a chair. When I tensed up, he sighed in my ear, resting his forehead on my shoulder, he whispered "Relax, Kagome, Inu are very possessive, and demons do not progress as slowly as humans. If things go according to what this one has planned, you will be pupped soon."

I relaxed a bit, leaning back against him. "What do you mean, soon?" I asked. "I thought you said I was in heat when we had sex. Doesn't that mean I'm already pregnant?"

Sesshoumaru shook his head lightly. "A mating to complete a mating bond does not ever make a female pregnant, as youkai in previous years have found out, even if the female is in heat."

I felt like turning to look at Sesshoumaru. "When exactly do you plan on having me pregnant?" I aksed.

Sesshoumaru chuckled lightly, beginning to trail kisses down my throat, to my shoulder, before picking me up lightly, standing up, and turning me in his arms and kissing me on the mouth. He took me to another room, and tossed me softly onto the big bed. He crawled in after me, moving on top of me and trailing kisses down my neck.

**WARNING!!!**

_He opened up the kimono he had helped me into earlier, licking his way down between my breasts and to my belly button. He had torn the obi and tossed it off in some direction, chuckling lightly at my gasp. When I tried to sit up, he pushed my shoulders down and growled lightly. The sound tickled me a bit. I lay down peacefully. It wasn't like we hadn't done it before._

_He trailed his tongue from right above me belly button all the way to my breasts and started licking and sucking on the area around the nipples, pulling me closer to him. I could feel _it_ pressing into my thigh, and I knew that Sesshoumaru had a lot of pent up puppy horniness stored away from those years of being unable to take a mate. My question was: where did he get all this…ahem, experience?_

_As I started to drift in my thoughts, Sesshoumaru had begun to growl, and he bit my breast lightly. When I glanced down, he glared at me. "Cease thinking," he said simply, before turning back to the task at hand: getting me out of the kimono._

_I was soon lying on my back without the kimono on, being kissed senseless by Sesshoumaru. I trailed my hand down his chest and abdomen, grabbing him lightly, pulling. He groaned, then pumped forward a bit, nipping at my ear as he did so. I got a bit bolder. I began to pull on him more roughly, kissing his ear, licking and nipping the tip, and behind the ear, where he was most sensitive. He pulled away long before my fun was done._

_He kissed me on the mouth, trailing kisses down my neck, down my chest, and down my belly to the soft spot down below, nipping and sucking on my inner thigh before licking and kissing somewhere else entirely. I could feel that coil tightening up, and Sesshoumaru's hands began to hold my hips down while I arched up off the bed. When I came, I couldn't stop myself from moving on the bed, a lot, even with Sesshoumaru's hands keeping me held down. His mouth never seemed to stop._

_When I was done, he moved back up me, kissing in random places before kissing me fully. I could taste the tanginess of me in his mouth._

_Before I noticed it, he was inside of me, moving, and kissing me. I was still a little bit high from earlier, and he was just getting started, I could feel it in the way he just kept going. He began a slow, steady pace, then gradually picked up speed till I swear I could _hear_ the bed moving. When I opened my eyes and looked off to the side, the bed actually_ was_ moving. He hit pushed in right as I noticed, and I felt him hit a spot I didn't even know I had. When I tensed up, Sesshoumaru looked up at me for a few seconds before experimentally hitting it again, making me arch up more than I thought possible. After that he just kept hitting it over and over. The coil felt like it was past its snapping point._

_I could feel myself losing control again, thrashing on the bed, I could feel myself clamping around Sesshoumaru. He pulled out half-way through my climax, though, and began to lick me clean again. When I was settling down, he flipped me on my stomach and brought my butt into the air, I could see him visibly shaking, and when I turned my head to look at him, I could see his eyes flashing red-normal, red-normal, over and over. I moved a bit, and then his eyes flashed pure red, and he slammed all the way in._

_That night, neither of us slept. It was only when I started to see the sun rising that we finally went to sleep. Honestly, I don't know how Sesshoumaru did it._

**DONE!!!Well, with that part anyways.**

The next morning, I woke up warm, content, and a bit sore. I was being held in a pair of arms, had my legs wrapped around a waist, and I could feel something soft and fluffy curled around me. There weren't any blankets. I guess Sesshoumaru liked sleeping cold. I began to move away from him to get out of the bed. It was late in the afternoon. But he wouldn't let me. He pulled me back against his chest, this time facing him, growling lightly into my hair before kissing me on the cheek. I looked at him in the eyes. They were still tinted red, but not as severely as they had been the night before. It was only a pink-ish color, like the he was reminding everyone that he was a beast, even though he wasn't acting it right now.

"Good morning, Sesshoumaru!" I said.

Sesshoumaru buried his face in my neck before whispering in my ear "good morning."

I tried to get up again. He pulled me back down.

I turned to glare at him over my shoulder. "Sesshoumaru, I need to get up! I need a bath!" I yelled at him.

"You smell good without one, Kagome."

"SESSHOUMARU!!!"

I saw him wince lightly. I felt bad, but not bad enough to say sorry. I glared at him until he let me get up. I wasn't exactly sure where to go to take my bath, so I had to ask Sesshoumaru. When he directed me to a door near his bed, I opened it and walked through. There was a hotspring inside the room. I sunk into it, putting my foot on a ledge and then sliding down so that I sat on the ledge. I relaxed for a bit before I actually washed myself. Sometime during my bath Sesshoumaru joined me, and I began to wash him off while he finished giving me my bath.

Soon, we were getting out of the bath, and Sesshoumaru was slipping a light sleeping kimono on me, silently. He tied it, then put his own on. We walked out into his room, and Sesshoumaru picked me up and sat me on the bed before leaving the room. I waited for about ten minutes for Sesshoumaru. He came back with breakfast for both of us, and we ate in bed, curled up against the pillows. We had some kind of sushi for breakfast, which is probably why Sesshoumaru ate with me. I'd only ever seen him eat cooked food once, and that was when Rin had cooked it for him.

We eventually got up, and Sesshoumaru took me to a garden in his home. It was not far from his room, off in a little corner. I sat down on a bench in the corner, and he sat next to me, on the floor, putting his head in my lap. I could definitely get used to this.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

There were a few things that I realized in the next two weeks. The first was that, while he may be talkative and loving in our room, or in private, Sesshoumaru was still cold in public. He even growled at me once for kissing him on the cheek when I walked into the room. He had been talking to a general, and he growled at me lightly, but still, it was rather intimidating. Then came the revelation that most of the people around me, whether servants or upper class individuals, all treated me with respect, despite the fact that I was, admittedly, human, and therefore, they originally thought me below them. I suppose after the battle against Naraku, and the mating to Sesshoumaru that was to be expected, but it still hit me a bit harsher than I anticipated. The third revelation was that I was pregnant, and the fourth was that Sesshoumaru _knew_, which I thought odd, since he still insisted that we have….you know, at every possible chance. These "possible chances" was anytime we were alone in a room, I quickly noticed. It's not like I was really complaining. Afterwards, or when someone else was in the room, we would talk. He hadn't been kidding when he said that demons were different.

It was…nice…I decided, spending all this time with Sesshoumaru. He may not want me to be too loving when he was dealing with business, but he did let me hold his hand under a table, and once, around a General in his army, another cousin, it turned out, he pulled me into his lap, put his chin on my shoulder, and just sat there. It was really funny to see the male's face get all confused, especially when Sesshoumaru chuckled and kissed me on the cheek. It seemed that when he was in front of subjects whose loyalties may change, he tried to seem aloof, but in front of family, he didn't really care.

Right now, I'm just sitting in our room, in the bed, with a book from my time, a manga that is really, truly intriguing, in my lap. I didn't feel like going out today. I was so tired! I learned yesterday that demon pregnancies mimic the animal that they turn into. For example, my pregnancy should only last nine weeks. This was the second week. If you translate it to a human pregnancy, I was in the second month. What does that mean? For me, it could be put into two sounds. Retching and "ugh…"

I should start showing within the next two weeks. That will be interesting. I wish, now, that my mother was here. But I had left her, long ago, waiting at the top of a well that was closed up for the rest of eternity. I was assured by Sesshoumaru that I would be seeing her again. In five hundred years, give or take. We would have to watch them, and me, carefully, making sure we didn't run into each other. If I said hi to myself, there was no telling what might happen. It wouldn't be pretty.

Sesshoumaru came into the room, then, pulling off armor and looking like he had seen better days. "What's wrong?" I asked.

He grunted. "Its summer, it's mid-day, and I'm a long-haired inu. I should be in a cool, dug up place, with you curled up next to me, asleep. Instead, I'm arguing with a council-member who thinks I should break our mating so his pup can have another go," he said, crawling into the bed next to me and plopping down with his head on my stomach, eyes closed.

I began running my fingers through his hair, rubbing on his ear in a place I knew made him relax instantly. He sighed and leaned a bit into my hand. If any of his enemies or even his allies ever saw him like that, I was sure that they would be surprised that a little human miko could bring him down so fast. Not that I'd ever let them see him like this. This was my time to spend with him. Not his generals', or the council's, and certainly not any of his enemies'. Mine, and I was extremely, unexpectedly protective about him.

I sighed and leaned back farther, looking at the anime character in front of me on the pages, then back at him. The resemblance was striking. The long hair, the cold eyes, even the dark marking on his forehead, though this was a full moon, while Sesshoumaru's was a crescent. I laughed, making Sesshoumaru look up at me.

He smiled slightly. "Does my pain amuse you, mate?" he asked.

I giggled. "No, your look alike does."

He tilted his head to the side by a few degrees, creating the perfect confused puppy dog look. I showed him the picture in the book. "That does not look like this Sesshoumaru," he told me.

"Well, not exactly, but there is a resemblance."

He nodded minutely making me giggle. He settled back onto me and closed his eyes again and I began to run my fingers through his hair again. I finished the manga and leaned back into the pillows, putting the book on the floor next to the bed.

It was kind of funny, actually. Right as I started to think about Sesshoumaru, he walks in. It made me think of the saying "speak of the devil, and he shall appear." In this case it was almost too literal of a saying, even though lately Sesshoumaru seemed less of a devil, and more like my angel, my guardian angel. He may have fallen, but that didn't make him worse than anyone else I know. We all make mistakes sometimes.

I closed my eyes and smiled. "_You_ are my guardian angel," I whispered, so softly I was pretty sure that Sesshoumaru wouldn't be able to hear it.

But he gave a single, small, laugh, and looked up at me. "And you are mine," he said. Then he leaned up and kissed me, before settling back down on my stomach. "How do you feel about twins?" he asked.

I thought about it for a moment. "I'll be spread thin, but I think I would be able to manage. Why?"

Sesshoumaru didn't answer me. "How do you feel about triplets?" he asked.

"That would be any harder, but I'm pretty sure I would be able to take care of it. Why, Sesshoumaru?" I asked.

He looked up at me. "Two boys, one girl," was all he said.

I looked puzzled for a second, then my eyes widened. I swear that my heart almost stopped in that one moment. "What?" I asked. Sesshoumaru just smiled. "You can tell that?"

Sesshoumaru nodded. "I was trained in how to sense it when I was younger, maybe when I was about… hmm…nine or ten hundred years old." He closed his eyes again settling back on my stomach.

I looked him over. He looked to be about eighteen or nineteen. Not old. I was eighteen. "How old are you?" I asked.

Sesshoumaru looked up at me. "I am almost eighteen hundred years old," he said simply. I fell off of the bed.

He looked over at me before chuckling and picking me up, putting me on his chest. "Why does this surprise you, koi?"

I looked down at him. "You look about eighteen. I'm eighteen. You're a cradle-robber!"

Sesshoumaru glared lightly up at me. "Demons are immortal, and age less-quickly than humans before they completely stop aging at all. My father chose to make himself appear older after he reached the age where he stopped aging. Daiyoukai age even more slowly than regular youkai. Inuyasha ages as a normal youkai does. I was already in my human equivalent of the early teens when he was born. I was a bit over one thousand and five hundred years old then. Fifteen years old. He died in between his two hundredth and three hundredth years, and I barely aged at all. Unlike youkai, however, Inuyasha would _not_ have stopped aging. He lacked that gift. It is one reason why hanyou are hated so much. We finally get attached to them, and they die."

"So you're still…young for a demon?" I asked.

"For a demon…no, I am not. For a Daiyoukai, or a pure-bred, powerful, royal demon, yes, I am young."

I stared at him for a few more minutes. "Our children will age that slowly?" I asked.

"Hai."

"So I'll be dead long before they're even old enough to walk…" I whispered. I felt the tears began to build up. My heart had started clenching at the mention of Inuyasha, and it froze with the mention of our children.

"No. You have forgotten that you share this Sesshoumaru's immortality." Sesshoumaru sighed. "You will not be dying for another few thousand years, koi. Not unless I am killed, and I do not believe that will be happening."

I had forgotten about all the magic attached to the mating mark now gracing the curve of my neck. I would share all his abilities. The immortality, the immunity to poison, the immunity to illness, maybe even his speed, or… "Hey, do I get _all _of your abilities?" I asked.

Sesshoumaru looked puzzled, but nodded.

"Including the whips of light and the poisonous and acids and all that jazz?" I asked.

Sesshoumaru nodded again. "Your claws and fangs should be retractable, your ears will point, but not as harshly as mine, and you will be able to use my speed. All of these will occur in a short time. Within the next five years, they should fully emerge."

"Oh, so I don't have to worry about them for a while yet?"

Sesshoumaru shook his head. "Why would you worry?"

"I don't want to get angry, turn around to point at someone, and see their head go flying off!" I said simply.

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes, a sight to behold, I will tell you, as usually they were too narrowed for them to ever roll. "You will know how to control it. It is instinctual. Any aid you need will also be provided by me, or by a close family member." He settled back on the pillows and began to fall asleep when I realized I had another question for him.

"Sesshoumaru?" I called softly. He sighed and then grunted. "How did your father do it?" I asked.

He raised a single eyebrow without opening his eyes. "How did he have two sons from two different women without dying? And how did he die and Izayoi not?"

He did open his eyes up then. "He never mated either of them. My mother was there simply to bear him an heir. I was the first born male of the litter, followed by my two sisters, and my only full-brother, who died a month later. A single litter was all that was needed. After that, my mother raised us, and then left. My sister, Akane, is mated to a male from the south, with a nice home in a place called England, and four litters of her own. The other, Ami, is mated to a male from the north, and they live in a desert between here and my sister's home. She says that this way, we could both visit her without having to move too much. She has six litters, and she is pregnant once again. He took Izayoi as a prank to the lords of the council, and to the human lord who fathered her and dared to challenge him. He soon fell in love, they had Inuyasha, and he died, followed soon after, in demon terms, by Izayoi."

I looked up at him. "Are your sisters kind?" I asked.

He nodded. "And extremely patient, or else they would not have been able to raise so many children. They were mated to their males roughly twenty years ago, and have been trying to speed me along since."

"Do you think they'll mind that I'm human?" I asked. It was a bit late to be worrying about the in-laws, huh?

He shook his head. "They are much more accepting than I am. Akane courted a human for a long while, which angered me greatly. Unfortunately, before she felt she was ready to mate, he died. She made me agree to bury him in our family's burial plane. Ami had a few friends who were human when we were younger. To this day, she still looks after their great-great-great grandchildren. They see her as some kind of far off relative."

I looked up at him and nodded once. "Okay."

"May I rest now?"

I glared up at him. "Yeah, yeah," I sighed. "Just don't snore."

"This Sesshoumaru never does anything as low as snore."

I sighed. "Goodnight Sesshoumaru."

That night, I dreamt of a dark cave, of the smell of rot, death, and salt-water. I dreamt of red eyes, and greasy hair that fell over them. I dreamt of a man, but not a man, who kept coming back to haunt me. I dreamt not of Naraku, but of something far worse, something far darker. It was something so much scarier that it had me writhing in the bed, on top of Sesshoumaru.

"We will get her," he said, his voice hissing and spitting, the smell wafting disgustingly from him. His eyes blinked one at a time, and I could see that the red was from the eyes being bloodied and that there were tears in some places on the eyelids. He was revolting, he was disgusting. He had me nearly screaming. "We will get this Kagome, and her pups, and we will hold them hostage as bait for that stupid lord. We will never kill her, but she will be tortured, and he will feel that torture, through their bond. Through their _love_." He spit the last word out, like a human would a curse.

A deep voice came from off to one side, and I saw a great, hulking shape take a step forward. "But how will we get her my lord?" it asked.

"We will get her through her dreams," the evil thing laughed, its sinister sound bouncing off the walls thousand fold. I felt my stomach clench sickeningly, and I began to scream, thrashing against whatever surface I was lying on.

I woke with Sesshoumaru above me, holding me down and staring down at me wildly, scared, I realized. He was searching my face for something when I awoke, and I simply grabbed onto me and would not let go. I cried into his shoulder, telling him about the dream.

"Are there demons that can do such a thing?" I asked.

Sesshoumaru nodded.

"Yes, little one, there are, but none will get the chance to commit such a crime. Go back to sleep. I will have the demon you have described taken care of in the morning."

I went back to sleep, and was immediately pulled into what I assumed was Sesshoumaru's dream.

I was sitting in the garden we had been in earlier, only this time, I was sitting in his lap, with his chin on my shoulder and his arms holding me lightly. We were watching three pups, two boys and one girl, play on a blanket on the ground in front of us. One of the boys had my hair and eyes, and the others had Sesshoumaru's features.

I looked back at Sesshoumaru, my mate, my love, my only, and smiled. "I always did want kids," I told him. "I never even thought to recently that they would be yours." I felt him stiffen under me, the soft, loving smile on his face melting. "And I definitely never realized how happy, beautifully happy that this entire ordeal would make me."

He relaxed then, and I smiled slightly. I leaned back and whispered, "I love you Sesshoumaru, and I don't even know why."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The next morning, I awoke to something very unusual: an empty bed. Usually, Sesshoumaru was there, lying next to me, braiding my hair, or just staring at me. I knew he probably woke up hours before me, but he seemed to enjoy just sitting next to me in bed. Lying lazily next to me seemed like some sort of everyday pleasure he craved, and who was I, as his mate, to refuse him that simple, easy pleasure? It wasn't like I really minded. It was a duty, I suppose, to him, to make him feel like I wanted him more than I'd ever wanted anything more in my life. That was all the truth, and though I knew he knew that, sometimes, I thought he might doubt me.

This morning, however, gave me a little time to think over the past month or so. My personal hell, as one could call it, had happened over the past few weeks. I had loved Inuyasha. I still did, but I had begun to love Sesshoumaru as well. It didn't hurt any less to my already broken heart that Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha, though no longer at each other's throat, and who had been getting along decently before Inuyasha's death, had buried the hatchet. To me, I would always be the miko who had not only fallen in love with a half-demon, but a demon as well. Not a full two months after Inuyasha had died, and I was married to his brother! How could I not feel horrible? How could I not feel like a dirty, nasty whore, who jumped from one bed to another? Even though Inuyasha and I had never had sex, it was still pretty much a given that we would have eventually been married, had children, and gone on with our lives. I would have been content, even happy, with that life. It would have been a nice, clean, wonderful time spent with Inuyasha, even if I would have died before him, even if I would have died before our children. That's the way it is supposed to be anyway, ne?

My major question for myself now was: would I have been as happy, as content as this?

I knew then that it was a strange, even sick question to ask. I was asking myself if the man I had thought was the love of my life, Inuyasha, would have made me as happy as the male I now thought the love of my eternity. The question stung, very, very much, I realized. It had me sitting back on the headboard, with my face buried in the pillow I had hugged to myself, tears staining the white, flexible, soft material. Would I have been as well off, working daily, getting in far too many arguments, living with a man who didn't truly respect me, though he did love me? I didn't know if Sesshoumaru respected me, but at least he trusted me to make my own decisions. If I had tried to contradict Inuyasha in front of an opponent, there would be no warning, as Sesshoumaru had given me. Inuyasha would have immediately thrown a fit and sulked for hours. He wouldn't have even listened to my thoughts, or my reasoning, as Sesshoumaru sometimes did. It just wasn't in his nature. He stuck to the battling, and I was supposed to stick to the house-work, and the shard detecting. He was flawed, but then again, so was I, and so was Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru was arrogant to a fault, he was silent, he didn't like public displays of emotion, and he loved to witness others in pain, if only to make him feel like he was in less pain himself. It wasn't really an unexpected thing, considering his name, or his title, or even his demeanor, but it still was a bit scary. He trusted to little in most people, and when he did start to trust you, he never showed it. It could be a while until you realized it. It would be even longer for him to respect you, and you may never find out until it was already too late. Though his most fatal flaw, I would say, is being too protective. He was always distracted by someone in need. If anyone of his subjects was in harm's way, you could fully expect to see him in front of the subject, eyes flashing and acid whip flying. It was a sight to behold; Sesshoumaru on a rampage was a beautiful, disastrous, and wonderfully exquisite sight. It would make even the most ruthless warrior fall to his knees.

My flaws were that I'm loud, I'm sarcastic, and I'm too trusting, not to mention that my insecurities are great both in number and size. If it were possible to fill anything with a person's insecurities and then compare them to others', mine would be the biggest by far. I was the exact, almost, opposite of Sesshoumaru. It was kind of ironic that I ended up falling in love with him. I was pretty sure by this point that he loved me too. I had only heard him say "I love you" once, and that could have easily been in a dream. I couldn't be sure. I was slipping in and out of consciousness at the time.

So, would I have been happy? Yes, definitely, without a doubt I would have been happy to live my life out with my domineering, over-protective, best friend and first true-love. But…I wasn't so sure about the last question.

"Would I have been as happy as I am with Sesshoumaru?" I asked myself aloud. I kept thinking about it, turning the same imaginary cogs over and over again in the magical answer factory that was my brain, but I just kept producing the exact same thing. The glaring question mark in front of me was infuriating, gross, and large, in a grotesquely ugly puke-yellow color. It reminded me of something from the sixties. Like one of the original Tupper-ware boxes. This question was turning my stomach to a roiling, lurching see in my abdomen, making me physically ill. My head began to hurt as tears continued to stream down my face, half from the fact that I couldn't answer myself, whom I literally could not lie to, and half from the fact that I was poking at the fresh wound left from Inuyasha's death. What more could I do to myself? I silently asked.

My unease must have made Sesshoumaru restless, because soon, I was not the only one in the bed, and I knew no one else would enter this room, and they would never risk touching their dear Lord's mate. That was definitely on the "to-do list" for the kiss-ups around here. I was a little bit worried about them all.

Soon I was crying into Sesshoumaru's kimono shoulder, clutching tightly to him as he held onto me and tried to soothe me. "What is wrong, Kagome?" he asked quietly. I looked up at him and just felt my heart clench more. Maybe it was just the pregnancy hormones, but I felt like shit today.

"Would I have been as happy?" I asked.

"Would you have been as happy?" he asked puzzled.

"Would I have been as happy married to Inuyasha as I am mated to you?" I asked him.

Sesshoumaru stiffened, and then looked down at me. His eyes held some emotion in them, jealousy, I thought, before he said, "what could have been has not been, and you would do well not to dwell on it." He took another look down at me and added, "But I do believe that the idiot would have taken good care of you."

Just then, my next question just came tumbling from my lips in a whisper, "Is it wrong to fall in love so quickly after Inuyasha….?" I trailed off, uncertain of how exactly to end that sentence.

"No," he murmured. "It is not. The heart is a fickle thing, and a demon, even a half demon understands this. Inuyasha would not think any less of you for it. You were driven by necessity to live at first, and you still have a lot of time left before you reach your full potential."

I felt my heart slow, and my tears stopped burning as much at the back of my eyes. If someone ever tells you that Sesshoumaru is a good person to ask for advice from, do not scoff at them. He really is. "Does wisdom really come with age, old man?" I asked, smiling a little through the tears.

He looked at the ceiling, then down. "Not necessarily."

I felt like laughing a bit at the comment, but I held back. "Thank you, Sesshoumaru."

"It is my duty, and my pleasure, mate." Sesshoumaru left the bed and the room pretty quickly after that. I guess he had some other duty to attend to, and that I should just get moving.

I ate a small lunch in the gardens with Rin, who quickly ran off and returned with a bouquet of flowers larger than she was. She gave the flowers to me and then picked some more, weaving them into a nice little crown and necklace for the kappa that had been following her around for the day, as he was assigned to do every day. It was funny to see, an ugly, green toad-demon with pretty pink flowers all over him. It got even funnier when he began chasing around the girl with the staff of two heads, neglecting to even take off the improvised hat and necklace ensemble. Not to mention that the girl would often trip him up. Rin was obviously an expert at outsmarting Jaken.

We sat in the gardens for a while together, and I stayed even after they left, letting my feet hang into the cool stream running through the garden, and falling asleep with my head on the tree next to me.

I had another dream of the man with the red eyes, and the disgusting voice. He was talking this time of making sure to take the female, the miko's strength into consideration.

"Don't let her get the best of you," he was telling the bulky demon next to him. "Don't underestimate her because of her size or gender. She's a resourceful little bitch, I'll give her that much."

"But milord-"

"Don't you worry about a thing. Just get her when I order you in, and make sure to quiet her. Just don't kill her, or I'll leave you to the dog's army."

The bulky demon blinked, gulped and bowed. "Yes, milord."

I was awoken by Sesshoumaru, as he put me on the bed in our room. I looked up groggily, and I knew I had to tell him, before the dream faded, before I forgot. "Sesshoumaru."

"Hn?"

"I had another dream with the demon again," I told him.

He looked up at me then. "What is wrong, koi?"

"They keep planning to kidnap me. Why?"

Sesshoumaru looked me in the eyes. "I have many enemies, Kagome. Every Lord does. He will be taken care of. His home was searched today. We know where he is now, but it is out of our current reach. We will get him, as soon as the treaty with the east is worked on."

I nodded. "Okay."

"Why does this trouble you so?"

"It just doesn't feel nice at all."

"Go to sleep, Kagome," he told me. "We will worry about the future later; right now, we have the present to deal with."

He tucked me in with a gentleness I thought flattering, and then settled into the bed beside me, his arm draped over my waist, pulling me back against him. "I love you, goodnight."

Without a second thought, I replied, "Good night, I love you too."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

It's always wonderful waking up in a bed next to a warm body, even when that warm body seems more than a bit distracted. Sesshoumaru felt agitated, confused, and impatient, and it was palpable, even without enhanced senses, and miko-mojo. As soon as he noticed I was awake, he rolled over out of the bed and began fastening armor and weapons on over his outfit, something he had skipped over the past few days. I sat up in the bed, the covers falling down to my lap. I now had a little bump on my stomach. Oh, and you know how they say "Morning Sickness"? Don't believe them. It's "Any damn time of day sickness!" Mine happens right before lunch.

"Sesshoumaru, what's wrong?" I asked groggily.

He looked over at me and I saw something I'd never seen before pass through his eyes: worry. He was even debating whether or not to tell me what was wrong. "Fluffy…" I trailed off. Then I reached over and picked up the mokomoko-sama before he could, getting out of bed stark naked and backing up. "What's wrong?" I asked again. I darted out of his way when he reached for me. If he really wanted it, he would get it. He smiled lightly.

"It is…nothing," he said. I glared at him, and he sighed. "We've found that male. We have him surrounded, and the soldiers are ready to bring him in. He's already basically a prisoner. I am simply…nervous about bringing him into my home."

He seemed to have trouble finding the words, taking moments to pause and think over how to say things. I held out the mokomoko. "Oh…" I said.

He looked me over. "Get dressed, and stay in the bedroom area. I will have food, water, anything you need, brought to you." I gave him a look. "Please, Kagome."

I sat down on the bed. "Okay…" I sighed. I waited until Sesshoumaru was out of the room before rising and walking into the humid, steamy hot springs connected to our bedroom. I sighed as I sank into the hot water. _I hope he'll be okay… why's he so worried about this demon? Is it just because he's a threat to me, or is it something else entirely? I don't know._

When I got out of the bath, there was a beautiful, fire-red kimono with a golden dragon design on it. I had a lot of lessons on getting into these, but a female servant helped me get into the kimono anyway. It was more Sesshoumaru's choice than mine. I'd been dressing myself since I was six, but I guess I could get used to this.

I walked into the bedroom and found a tray, with fruit, some soup, and bread on a table near the foot of the bed. There was also a cup full of water, and another earthenware bottle with a label obviously written by someone elderly. "For morning-sickness, kami knows we all hate having to deal with it. ~Anna"

I drank the cup of water, ate the fruit, the bread, and some of the soup, then downed the fluid in the clay cup. It tasted bitter, and it was thick, sliding down my throat in a way that was almost sickening. I coughed a few times after swallowing the concoction, but nothing came up, luckily. I didn't want to make another mess of our bedroom floor.

I sat down on the bed and fished through my big, yellow, trusty old back pack. In the back, behind quite a few volumes of manga, and some candy I really needed to give to Shippou, or perhaps Rin, I found what I was looking for: A sturdy, tie-able sketchpad.

I'm not the best artist in the world, nor have I ever claimed to be, but there's just something about feeling the scratch of the medium, usually a pencil or a piece of charcoal, over the rough, textured paper of the sketchpad. There was always the satisfaction of drawing something around me and making it recognizable to others, whether it was something big, like the God Tree, or something small, like a flower. Today, I decided, I was going to draw the bouquet that Rin had given me the day before.

I started with the center. It's always the easiest. The little puffs of pollen made it look rough before I began to draw the smooth lines of the petals, with their clean, gradual shading, and then the smooth, almost shiny texture of the stem and leaves. I had one flower down, twenty some odd more to go. Each flower was different, I noticed. There were two different types of roses, something I didn't expect to see, bird of paradise, hollyhock, and so many more.

It was at least two more hours later before I was drawing the ribbon around the stems. I took a look over the finished piece. It wasn't very accurate, I had friends who could draw a lot better, but to me, it was perfect. The door opened, and Rin came in. "Kagome-sama?" she called.

"Hai."

"Rin is bored. Sesshoumaru-sama told Rin not to leave the bedrooms. He wants Rin to either stay in Rin's room or come to yours."

Rin stopped and looked around, turning around in a circle. She seemed awed by the room, the bed, the covers…everything!

"Haven't you ever been in here before?" I asked. Sesshoumaru had basically adopted her. Wasn't she allowed to come into his room?

Rin shook her head. "Sesshoumaru-sama doesn't let anyone in here. Rin was surprised when he told her to come in here."

Well, that would explain the lack of toads. If Jaken ever came in here, I would personally pick his ugly butt up and kick him out of the room. Or I'd scream, get Sesshoumaru, and have him do it. There was a bang downstairs. Someone screamed, and there was a lot of yelling. After a while, it stopped, and Sesshoumaru came into our room, looking positively livid.

"Rin, go to your room," he told her. As she passed by, she hugged his leg, and he reached down and patted her. "Go."

He sat down on the bed next to me.

"I truly wish it was proper to deal with such problems on my own," he sighed. "The guards lost him _twice_."

I ran my hand through his hair. "Sesshoumaru, it's okay. They have him looked up now, right?"

Sesshoumaru nodded.

"See?" I said. "It's not so bad. It's not like he can walk through walls, right?"

Sesshoumaru looked at me and smiled slightly. He lied down on the bed and pulled me back so I was using him as a pillow. I could hear his heartbeat, and every breath he took. Soon, I was asleep.

_It was a horrible, horrible night. There was a lot of wind, and rain, and it was so cold. I was in a room. There was a male there, the same male that had been in my dreams before. His blood shot eyes stared at the water droplets as they fell on his face, through the barred window nearby him. His lip was curled exposing disgusting, yellowed fangs. _

"_What? Am I supposed to sit in here and do nothing? She will die, I will see to it," he muttered to himself._

"_Who will die?" an annoying voice asked from off to one side._

"_That woman, the miko, her name is Kagome. She will die, now. It would have been better if she had been kidnapped. Then we could have taken Sesshoumaru on, made him give us what we wanted," he snarled a bit at the end._

_Jaken walked into the light. "You wish to get rid of milord's mate?"_

"_Yes."_

_Jaken stood there for a while, circling the male. "You swear Lord Sesshoumaru will not be harmed?" he asked._

_The male looked him over and nodded his head, smirking. Jaken came over with the keys and unlocked the door to the cell the male was in, stepping into it. He wrinkled his nose at something I could not sense. The stench? The sight? No matter. Whatever it was that disgusted him, I could not perceive it. He took another key from the same ring and went to the manacles holding the demon down. He unlocked them, and dropped the heavy metal chains to the floor._

_The male got up, standing at a daunting height. Of course next to Jaken, everyone is very tall. He was fat, wrinkly, and reminded me of a shar-pei. He had blood red hound dog eyes. _

_He smiled once, then asked, "Where is Sesshoumaru's room?" he asked._

"_That is Lord Sesshoumaru to you!" Jaken said._

"_Where are lord Sesshoumaru's rooms then?" he asked._

_Jaken made a face, and then turned and lead the male down the hallway. _

I sat bolt upright in bed, or tried to. It was hard to do with Sesshoumaru holding me down against him. He woke up when I began to move. "Kagome?" he asked.

"Jaken…he's bringing someone here," I told Sesshoumaru.

"Oh yes, for your meeting. Yes, I know," Sesshoumaru said.

I looked at him for a moment and realized his eyes were closed, though he was obviously fighting it. I gasped, and got off the bed, only to back into the male from the dream. "Hello, Kagome," he whispered in my ear. Then the world went black, and all I could hear, all I could feel, was terror, pure and simple.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: sorry for the wait, my computer has been pulling some pretty epic failures, hence the shorter chapter. You wouldn't believe how long it took me just to type the Author's Note. By my computer's clock, like three minutes. Ugh. Bad news: i broke up with my ex boyfriend. Good news: i've gotten another guy I love. He's amazing...(not that i expect any of you read that, or cared, haha). A new chapter will be up within a week.**

Chapter 12

I woke sometime later, an angry Sesshoumaru holding me to him, and I was in a pool of blood. Some of it was the other male's, some of it was Sesshoumaru, and some of it, I realized, was mine. But it didn't smell right. There was something else there in the pool, I could smell it. And I was in so much pain. My stomach, between my legs, my arms, all hurt. I felt so sick. Like I had morning sickness again, but ten times worse, ten times multiplied, till I felt as if I was going to fall to pieces, and dissolve into one of those goo piles left after Sesshoumaru ran someone through with his venom. I felt absolutely horrid, and horrified.

"My lord, let us near the lady!" someone was shouting. "She needs help! She may get even more ill! She's already lost the pups, would you like to lose her as well?"

I sat there, shocked, as Sesshoumaru growled at the servant who dared step closer to him. I had lost the pups. The poor, poor babies that had never even truly had a chance, I had lost them. What monster had caused this? Was it that male? Or was it Jaken? Or maybe even a combination of them both? How dare they? How…how could they?

"Sesshoumaru," I whispered. His head snapped toward me, his eyes blood red. My throat felt raw, like I had been screaming for hours. Perhaps I had been. "Sesshhh… Calm down, love. Calm down. Don't scare them, please. Calm down. They only want to help. Let them… please?"

His eyes softened, but remained red. He moved to the side, sitting on the edge of the bed, bloodying the sheets as red fluid dripped off of him, from wounds, and from where it had collected as he fought with the demon on the floor near me. Well, all around me, really, as he seemed to have been ripped to shreds.

It was as I saw the color of the blood dripped around me, and the way he looked in his true form that I realized what he was. Demons of the night, a shadow demon of the rarest breed, able to trap, ensnare, and manipulate people through their dreams, and I had been his target. Sesshoumaru and I had been the target of this disgusting being in front of me.

I was quickly surrounded by the servants in the room. A few began to clean up the mess, and others moved to pick me up. But Sesshoumaru beat them to it. He picked me up and moved towards the hot spring. When we got there, he glared at the servants till they left, and then stripped me, placing me lightly in the water. He got in after me, bringing a soft cloth with him. He washed me off softly, trying to be as gentle as possible.

He reached to the side of the hot spring and pulled a phial of medicine out of a cabinet there, passing it to me. "It helps…" he trailed off. His voice was deeper and gravelly. I realized that he had stopped himself because I had been scared for a second. I'd always been told that demons that lose control lose all intelligence. When they get too close to true form, they can't speak, can't think, and can't recognize you. He placed the bottle at my mouth and tilted it. The liquid was warm, and tasted sour, burning all the way down.

"Thank you, Sesshoumaru," I said. Today was turning out to be hell so far. I could only imagine how bad it would get before the sun went down.

He nodded, and then picked me up, pulling me out of the hot spring and wrapping me in a clean kimono. When we got to the bedroom, the entire mess was cleaned up, and everyone was gone. He set me down on the bed and curled protectively around me. "I am sorry…" he growled out. It seemed like it was hard for him to say anything. Not because he couldn't find the words, but because his mouth was having trouble forming them. "For not being able to protect you…and the pups…"

I began to cry. I couldn't believe how much damage the stupid toad and that pathetic living dream catcher had caused. The pain was torture enough, the loss was even worse.

"Jaken did it," I said. Sesshoumaru's head snapped up, and he turned me over to look me in the eyes.

"What?"

"Jaken let him out; Jaken helped him, convinced that it would help you. Don't kill him. He isn't worth the trouble. I honestly don't know what punishment would be worth my babies' lives. No death could ever make him feel the pain I have, or that you have… I'm so sorry…"

I could feel myself fading from consciousness. I was exhausted, in pain, and ill. The last thing I heard was a growled out, "I'll think of _something!"_

I had nightmares full of the dead demon in hell. He was screaming to be let out. To be allowed to finish off the dogs bitch. Then Inutaisho got to him. I didn't believe till then that souls could travel freely in hell. And when Inutaisho found him, so did Inuyasha. They both already knew, and three little pups, probably around three or four years old, were hiding behind what looked to be Inuyasha's mother. Inutaisho put the demon against a wall as Inuyasha slowly dragged his claws through him, over and over, allowing him to heal before doing it again. Then Inutaisho got his turn…and they switch back and forth. Am I horrible for actually enjoying that part?

The next morning I woke up without Sesshoumaru at my side, which was very odd, and very uncomfortable considering what had happened the night before… I was nervous and quite a bit scared, but I knew I was safer here than anywhere else. Sesshoumaru wouldn't let anyone untrustworthy into these rooms. Hell, there were only three people, including Sesshoumaru and I allowed to be in here.

I got up out of bed to find that I was feeling better, at least, mostly. I was no longer feeling ill, but my heart ached for the lives that I had lost yesterday, for the pups I would never get the chance to hold. I went over to the wardrobe and changed clothes. This was a Western gown, full length, to the floor, with a rather tight bodice and a flowing skirt. I knew I had to stay in the rooms, so I didn't even bother trying the door. Sesshoumaru would ward it if he thought there was a threat to me, and while I could lower the ward, I didn't want to deal with it right now.

I could feel the depression working into my veins, the sluggish, tired, sad feeling that brings everyone down in troubled times, but I didn't want to fight it at this moment. I picked up a translated version of Pride and Prejudice out of the ugly yellow pack, and moved onto the bed, lying back against the stacked cushions and bringing my knees up. Sighing, I began to read, page by page. I had read it before, but I always started at the beginning, not at my favorite part.

I was about a quarter of the way through when Sesshoumaru walked into the room. He looked tired, something I never saw in him, and he seemed to be feeling just as bad as I was, if not worse. I couldn't blame him, but at the same time, I didn't want him to be feeling like this. I patted the bed, put the book down, and held him when he crawled in beside me.

"Do not feel bad, Sesshoumaru," I told him softly, rubbing his back.

"How can I not?" he asked.

I was a bit surprised, he used that forbidden, unknown "I" pronoun, just telling me how much he hurt. "I don't know, but I don't think that it's your fault. It's nobody's but that dead bastard's and Jaken's. Jaken meant well, though. He's just such an idiot. He thought that the male wouldn't harm you, or our pups. He's loyal to a fault."

Sesshoumaru sighed. "I know."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

When something truly tragic happens, humans, as a highly emotional species, go into shock. I suppose that, when I'd talked to Sesshoumaru before, I hadn't gone fully into shock, but today, I couldn't think. All day, I went through the motions of a "normal" day in my mate's home. I sat in my room, as I'd become used to doing since before I'd miscarried because of the threat from that demon, and after my miscarriage because I was so commonly ill. I was so weak. According to Sesshoumaru, since my pregnancy was a demon pregnancy, my body couldn't handle the left over venom, and his blood had saved my life, coupled with the fact that I was a miko. A normal human, without miko powers, would have died from being mated, and if they had survived, the miscarriage alone would have killed them on the first day.

I suppose I shouldn't have counted this "miscarriage" as that. It had been an abortion. A forced abortion, which was something I had not wanted at all. There was no question about it. This entire ordeal had been a complete and utter disaster, a catastrophe, a tragedy, and the greatest sadness I had ever experienced. I experienced more sorrow in the first hour after I woke than I had in the entire ten years or so since my father had died.

I went into shock not a day after Sesshoumaru came back to me that morning. He went to get breakfast when I woke up the next day, and when he got back, I lacked the ability to even look at him. I couldn't hold the food. He had freaked out, called in medics, and tried getting me to move. He had been… not angry, not scared, more like frustrated. He thought I'd fallen ill again, that the medics had missed something, some secret toxin. He had thrown a medic through the wall(which was made of stone) before one of the other healers, the one Kagome had first met, came to him, glared at him, and said "She is experience a purely human response to tragedy called shock, and no, it does not involve anything electrical."

He had looked her over. Her glare, straight in his eyes, told him that she was sure of her answer, and that she was not truly afraid of him. That's one thing that will gain you Sesshoumaru's respect. Do not back down, do not fear him, treat him with respect, but don't cower, and you'll have his respect soon. Inuyasha's problem had been that he never showed Sesshoumaru respect. Too bad for him, too. His brother would have made a great ally to have when Inu was younger. He could've helped him out.

Now, I know you're wondering. "How could I know all of this if I was in shock?" Well, really, it was more like I was… half conscious. I could look around, hear, but… I couldn't think, like there was a block in my mind, a block produced because I didn't want to think, or speak, or do many other things. I just sat there, looking at the wall, crying until I felt like there was an endless stream of tears going from my eyes to my hands, my dress, anywhere they could fall. I couldn't DO much of anything.

I'd always told myself that I was a strong-willed person, and I was, up to a point. But… at a certain point, I'd lost my will, lost my ability to stay bright and cheery, and had sunk into a giant hole, like an emotional sinkhole in the middle of the road that sadists(and a few masochists) call life. I don't quite remember how long I stayed like that. I remember that Sesshoumaru laid me back in the bed, putting pillows under my head, sitting there all day, watching me, and all night. I remember that he gave me a bath or two. I also remember that when I "woke" someone rushed in, speaking lowly, quickly to Sesshoumaru. I remember Sesshoumaru tensing, and hearing "dangerous… siege… battering ram… we need you to… she will survive… move her…"

I remember sitting bolt upright, looking at Sesshoumaru's back where he was standing near the door way, and thinking_ what's going on. _I was frantic as I jumped up. Sesshoumaru turned to me, his eyes showed relief, but also worry.

"I will be at the front gates shortly," he told the guard, who immediately nodded, bowed, and strode quickly from the room. Sesshoumaru walked over to me, slowly, monitoring my reactions. "Are you alright, love?" he asked.

I nodded.

"You must come with me," he told me, grabbing my hand and gently guiding me toward the door. We were soon in front of Rin's door, her name was marked across it in beautiful calligraphy. Without knocking, Sesshoumaru walked in, lifted her gently, and handed her, still sleeping, to me. She woke for a millisecond, long enough to prop herself on my hip and bury her face into the silk of my kimono.

Sesshoumaru looked at me. "Try not to wake her. Follow me."

I did as I was told, too tired, to scared to be disobedient, or to throw a fit even I knew I was notorious for. We walked back into our bedroom and toward the closet. He opened the door and felt along the back wall. Seeming to have found what he was looking for, Sesshoumaru used a claw to slice open his skin and quickly ran it over the wall. A bright green light shone, and a small door appeared. "Hurry through," he muttered. "Get yourself settled. No matter what, do not lower the wards."

I was confused for a moment, standing there, staring at Sesshoumaru. He growled a bit, pushing me back into the lit doorway. I sucked a startled breath in as I fell.

I suppose that after so long of traveling through the well, I should have gotten used to the feeling of continually falling, but I hadn't. I nearly fell when my feet hit the floor of the cave. I looked around warily. We were nowhere in the castle, I knew that much. I looked around at the magically lit fire. The furs scattered about, some demon, some just animals, at the overlarge pallet of furs, pillows and such in one corner, and the hot spring behind the painted divider in the other corner. We were in Sesshoumaru's den. No, the castle was not his den. The castle was a place for his pack. The den was his own. His place to go to stop and truly think.

Evidently, it was also the place for him to throw his mate into hiding. Gently, I placed Rin on the pile of furs that constituted the "bed." The white fur that was scattered over it was longer than she was tall.

I could see the castle off in the distance. A small army of ants was gathered in front of it, holding up flames. I walked over to the springs, checking if there was any clothing for Rin and I. There was, in a set of shelves carved into the cave walls. I stripped and slid into the water, washing myself quickly and dressing before folding the dirty clothes neatly and putting them in a corner.

After, I went over to the barrier and looked out at the army stationed in front of the Castle of the West. I touched the barrier lightly with my fingers, testing it's elasticity, it's strength. It would be enough to hold Rin and keep her safe.

I looked around. There was food, clothing, a bed, bathing space, and I knew that there was at least one servant. I'd come out of the spring to find Rin tucked under a thin blanket.

I might have been in too much shock this morning to protest much, but if Sesshoumaru had thought that I'd sit here and be defenseless for long, he had another thing coming.

**A/N: Short, I know. More is coming, dears. Thanks to anyone who still follows this story. G-ma's in the hospital. I don't care what god you worship, whether it's the flying spaghetti monster or "GOD," or none at all, but please, pray for her, if you don't mind. Her heart's failing. Thank you.**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: I know most of the time people don't read these things. Still, I'm sorry for having put off this update for so long. I've been having a lot of class work and everything… Grandma's still sick. Horribly… Alas, this is unimportant in regards to the fic, so here we go**

**CHAPTER 14:**

I put my hand against the barrier that Sesshoumaru had put up to "protect me," scoffing at the thought. I don't like being left behind. I'm an idiot like that. Even when I know I'm useless, I prefer to be with the ones I love when they are in danger. I watched as an enemy army raised a battering ram to my mate's, my love's, home. Archers raised bows, and fire leapt from the top of the wall to meet the idiots who dared stand against Sesshoumaru. Acid was poured on top of the men holding the battering ram. The ram disintegrated, the men screamed so loudly I could hear it through the barrier and from miles away. Left behind where the leaders of the invading army, men who were so foolish as to bring a small army against Sesshoumaru's great one.

No, these were not men. They were males, demons. I looked around me once more. Sesshoumaru had still considered me weak, damaged, when he dropped me off here. I tested the wards once again. He'd ordered me not to break them. He hadn't said anything about bending them. I could leave them in place. I just needed to find a soft spot. Like the middle of an eraser, bendable, but it'll go back. It's just that this ward was a lot larger than an eraser, and the soft spot was a lot smaller.

I needed weapons, I decide. A bow would be the only thing I really needed.

"I'm going to get you for this, Sesshoumaru!" I said to no one in particular. After, I turned my attention to the area near the spring. Someone had brought me clothes. There was a servant here. I simply need demand, and I knew something would happen. "I'm leaving, you know. With or without a weapon. Your lord thinks he can keep me pent up in here, but I won't stand by and watch, risking the loss of the last thing for me."

I felt a small hand on my wrist. "Please don't, Lady."

The nezume-youkai was small. Her eyes were wet, large, and worried, a frown forming between them. Her hair was a dark grey.

"I need to. Can you arm me?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I was ordered not to by the Lord."

"Well, I'm ordering you to."

"I can't do it, Miss."

"Did Sesshoumaru order you not to listen to me?" I asked. I felt offended, slightly.

"…No, ma'am, but…"

"Then take it into account that I am his mate, and you answer to me in his absence. Seriously, don't worry about it, I'll be fine."

The female hesitated before running off to get a small dagger and a bow. The belted quiver fit well at my waist, the designs stitched into it reminded me of Germany. I guess it was true that Sesshoumaru's lands extended beyond those of Japan.

I sighed, preparing myself for my great escape. "This could take a while…" I muttered to myself.

"Ma'am?"

I ignored the girl and walked to the mouth of the cave, placing my hands against the barrier, feeling the energy of it crackle and pulse and push against my palms. It should have felt bad, forceful, and perhaps even painful. I was filled with a feeling of comfort and safety. It became harder to want to get out. I wanted to stay where my love wanted me, where he could protect me, where he could trust that, no matter what, I would be there when he returned, but when I thought of my love, I thought of him, limb torn from limb, his venom drained and fangs pulled, and my heart swelled with anger, devotion, and determination. I would be at his side. I would help him to remain safe, and to keep his home safe.

Afterwards, I would scold him for putting me here. Then I would tell him I loved him.

I pushed slightly against the barrier, probing around gently both physically as well as with my mind, searching it for breaks, bends, tears, or a slight soft spot. I couldn't seem to find one. Sesshoumaru was a rather powerful creature, I had to admit. Powerful enough, perhaps, to actually keep me locked away like this.

"I'm not some princess in an ivory tower. I'm Kagome. I've been called wench, bitch, and whore before. I will get out of here."

I could have sworn that I had only thought it, but the mouse chuckled.

I pushed again. I could feel a dip in the fabric of the barrier. I probed it. Soon, it became a soft spot, then a tiny tear. I pushed more energy through, widening it and slipping first my hand, then my arm up to my shoulder, and then I widened it until I was able to lift first one foot, then the rest of my body through.

I repaired the tear before I tore off into the forest. The skirts of my kimono were getting in the way of my movement. I shouted a bit, bending to cut them off above my knee with the dagger. It was surprisingly sharp and effective. Then I used the dagger to slice slits from the new, ragged hem to my hip. Satisfied, I tucked my dagger into my belt before taking off again.

I ran for about fifteen minutes. Apparently, being Sesshoumaru's mate had aided my stamina. When I was only about a mile from the enemy lines, about to turn more toward the mountains behind the castle, where the enemy was not present, I heard a few troops nearby, scouting. I slowed down and hid my weapons. The dagger went in its sheath under my breast bindings, between my breasts, the bow along my spine, the quiver around my waist with the belt loosened so it was hanging along my thigh hidden by the fabric of my dress. I had just gotten my kimono tied when the first of the scouts saw me and stopped dead in his tracks.

"Hey, lookie here, boys, I believe I just found dinner!" he said. The others filed in behind him.

I raised my chin a bit, lifted my lip in what I hoped was a mimic of Sesshoumaru's disgusted face, and glared down at them.

One of the others, a higher rank by the look of his armor, shook his head. "This, my pets, is a prize. She's that bastard's mate! She'll make great for ransom."

I was tempted to say, "Don't call him a bastard, you morons!" but I figured I might as well use the free ride to a part of their camp. They wouldn't be able to get the message out soon enough, and I'd be closer to wear I needed to be, at least. "Oh, please, no! I wasn't supposed to leave you see!"I tried to look scared. I'd never been the best actress. I was the loudest, not the most subtle.

They bought it. "Oh come off it, sweetheart!" One of the lesser males grabbed me, throwing me over his shoulder. I lightly resisted, but I let him take me.

I waited until we were just entering their camp, not quite there, and not noticed yet.

"You're a lot lighter than expected," the male carrying me muttered.

"Why is that?" I asked, miffed.

"Usually, demon bitches weigh more, because they're large creatures compressed. Not exactly as heavy as their true form, but…" he trailed off.

"Want to be let in on a little secret?" I asked him.

He nodded.

"I'm not a demon _bitch._ I'm a _miko._" With that, I blasted as far as I could safely reach with my miko powers without overexerting or exhausting myself. I felt quite a few demons purified, disintegrated, and dead. As soon as I hit the floor, I took off in the opposite direction. I hoped that whatever Sesshoumaru's powers had done to boost me would allow me to reach him before what was left of the army reached me.

I ran toward the back, small gate of the castle. The six guards stared at me. "I'm Sesshoumaru's Lady, for Kami's sake. LET ME IN!" I shouted.

They opened the door. "You should have stayed away, my lady. The Lord will not be pleased."

I rolled my eyes.

"The Lord will probably never be pleased by me, but I'll keep it fun," I smiled.

"Cheeky wench," the head guard muttered.

"What was that?" A deadly voice came from behind him.

The guards scrambled to bow. "N-nothing, my Lord," the guard stuttered.

Sesshoumaru "hn"d and took off, expecting me to follow him. I dropped my eyes and did, staying just about a yard behind him on the right side. We reached his manor and, eventually, our rooms much too quickly for my liking. He stood, looking off the balcony with his back to me.

"Sesshou, let me explain, I-"

"Do you have any idea what you have done? You could have died, Kagome." He was quiet, his voice dangerous.

"But I didn't. I can't be left behind like that, Sesshoumaru! If your brother were alive, he would tell you! When anybody I care for is at risk, I can't stay back! I may get myself into more and more trouble, but I won't stay on the sidelines!"

He wheeled toward me. His eyes were a deep crimson. He tackled me to the bed and tore the remainder of my dress off my shoulders. Then he kissed me, passionately, but more softly than I had expected. I had been scared, but that kiss made me feel relieved and safe, for some reason. He buried his nose into my shoulder, breathing in my scent.

"You scared me," he sighed. "I saw half of their troops disintegrate in a flash of pink, and I automatically began to panic. I used the barriers on my den to try and find you, and you _weren't there! _I had to use our bond to find you. At first, I couldn't. I thought you were dead, miko."

It was the most I'd ever really heard the guy say. As it stood, I didn't know how to respond.

"I'm alive," I reminded him. "Did I really take out half their army?"

"An exaggeration. More like a quarter of their remaining forces. You exhausted me in the process."

"You?"

"When you are doing something that reckless, my energy will jump up to help you. I became tired in the middle of a war council. They're still going on, but my piece has been spoken."

I could feel his weight against me, but he wasn't trying to crush me, more like trying to keep me there, safe, where he could be reminded of my presence. I leaned up to kiss me. "Don't try to keep me out of things, Fluffy."

Sesshoumaru growled, rolled over, and pulled me against his chest. His arms were iron bars around me. I was pressed uncomfortably against the metal of his breastplate, but luckily not against the spikes. Giving off a slight snarl, he pushed me off and tore the thing off himself, tossing it across the room. I was back on his chest in an instant.

"We will rest, and tomorrow you will stay by my side. Close, mind you."

I sighed.

"Miko, you will not disobey this Sesshoumaru."

My eyes rolled. "Koi, please."

I nodded against his chest. He sighed and began to sleep. "Be thankful you are still healing after the loss of our pups," he said, out of nowhere.

"Why?"

"If you weren't, I wouldn't have stopped at a kiss."

I stared at him for a few seconds, but he'd already began to doze. I leaned back down against his chest and, soon, I joined him in sleep.

**A/N: Long time coming, but I believe that this story is, finally, off hold. **


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The next day was a flurry of motion, sound, and smells. The demons we were up against had poisoned a few of our youkai, and when I went to go aid with the healing, the smell of festering flesh, blood, sweat, tears, and fur became embedded in my hair, skin, and clothes. Mixed with the smell of the gardens and the manor itself, my nose was kept preoccupied and burning all day. I could only imagine how Sesshoumaru felt. I was also jostled around by various soldiers of various ranks in my own home, bustling to and fro on Sesshoumaru's orders or bringing something, a message or the like, to him. Often, I was pushed into walls. A few times, I didn't even get an "I'm sorry, milady."

Sesshoumaru was usually with me. He knelt next to me in the bloody, smelly healing room while I listened to the dying, hurt moans of the males, the females too proud to let out more than occasional soft whimpers, and tended to those I could. He even offered them encouraging words and regarded them with respect. He kept me at his side at councils of war. I found out that they were planning to drop the demon equivalent of a nuclear bomb in the centre of the enemy camp. It was quite exhilarating, listening to how they were going to accomplish this. Basically, they were going to concentrate half of the army's worth of youki into a timed spell, which Ah-un would drop on the enemy. The other half of the army would be stationed on the walls of the fortress, armed and extremely dangerous. Sesshoumaru and I would be among them. Of course, I had to be fitted out for armor soon, given a new bow, and armed with a dagger that, from a description, was more like a short sword. I knew we would defeat them, but, sitting around, looking at the hurt males and a few females around me, I could not help but think to myself that no matter who conquered, no one would truly "win."

I was sitting on our bed, combing out my hair, when Sesshoumaru walked into our quarters. He looked me up and down. He growled, lowly. It wasn't menacing at all. "Why must you tempt me, Koi?"

I smiled, but I knew it didn't reach my eyes. I took in what I was wearing in the mirror over his shoulder. It was a deep blue silk sleeping kimono, with red, intricate designs all over it. I'd loosely tied it, and I noticed that it was showing more skin than I'd anticipated. It was his favorite. "I didn't really mean to."

He nodded. "You never do." He dropped his armor by the door and came to sit behind me on the bed. He pulled my hair back over my shoulder and gently took the comb from me. "We'll get through this."

The comb began to slide through my hair. Whenever he found a snag he'd go back and pull a bit by bit until it was gone without much pain. I'd always wonder how he kept his hair pristine. He must have a lot of practice at this. "How do you know, love?"

"We've gone through much, much worse." His voice was quiet. "This is a single battle. An attack on our own home. We've gone through entire, centuries long wars before. In my lifetime alone."

"I see."

"We are a great power, my love, a power you're joining. You will be helping me lead this power. You will create the new leaders of this power. You are the future. I think that when this is all over, you will have to be taught on all of this."

I nodded. My head fell back onto his shoulder, and I leaned into his chest. The comb stopped.

His chest rumbled with a chuckle. I felt him shift to put the comb on the bedside table, and then his arms were around me, his nose buried in the crook of my neck. He took a deep breath in, his hair coming forward and shadowing his face, brushing my shoulders lightly. "Mine."

I gave a short laugh and leaned back. "Yours."

The next morning, I woke spooning with Sesshoumaru. It was one of the most comfortable places I had ever woken up, if I do say so myself, even if it was a tad warm. His breath brushed gently over my shoulder, neck, and collar bone with each inhale and exhale. I was quite content to start drifting back off into a deep slumber, but of course, my darling mate just had to go and ruin it for me. As I started to settle back in and relax, Sesshoumaru decided to make his own wakefulness known.

"We need to get out of bed now."

His eyes were still closed, but I could tell now that he was awake. I had missed the too-quick breathing and the slight tense feeling in his forearms and shoulders. I groaned. "Why?"

"Because the battle will continue today, and if I have any say in the matter, today will be the last day."

I sighed.

"We need to prepare you, Kagome."

I sighed again. If this continued, he'd have me going on even worse than when I was a hormonally driven angsty teenager combating a freak of nature at Inuyasha's side. His name still brought a pang of pain to my heart. Sesshoumaru noticed, but didn't say anything. I thanked him for that. "What will I be doing today?"

"Your schedule consists of fitting for a breastplate, greaves, and something more wieldy in battle than a kimono, as well as choosing a bow, and being gifted with the dagger."

"Gifted with the dagger? Can't I just choose one from the armory?" I asked.

"There is one already made for you, Kagome. It has been waiting for you since I turned 14 hundred years old," there seemed to be a tad of wry humor in his voice. "It has become… lonely."

I frowned. "What kind of dagger is this? Something like Bakusaiga, Tetsusaiga, and Tensaiga?" I asked.

"Nothing that powerful. It was made from my fang as a pup, to be given to a mate when she was marked so that it could defend her as an extension of me should the need ever arise. It's just a normal dagger with a few –what do you call them?—ah yes, perks."

I shrugged. "Alright."

Sessh slid out of bed. "Time to rise, my dear. I will meet you outside when you are dressed to take you to the blacksmith. They will have your armor mostly ready, in need of only a few minor adjustments."

I nodded against the pillow of my arms, but didn't get up.

"Kagome…" Sesshoumaru's voice was a warning, his tone nearly slipping into that of the old, cold him.

I slid my feet over the edge of the bed until my toes touched the warm rug that separated me from the cold stone. "I'm up. I'll be out in a moment."

Sesshoumaru nodded. I dressed quickly in one of the kimonos that the staff had laid out. The obi was tied for me by a quiet maid that seemed to appear from out of nowhere. I thanked her and walked out, leaving her astonished in my wake. They could think I was crazy to thank them, I would not stop.

I ran into Sesshoumaru, literally, right outside our door. "Glad to see that you are ready," he told me, then began to stride down the hall. He was all business when we were out and about like this. I remained behind him to his right, ever silent, ever present, ever obedient, at least as far as the others knew. The clutter of people trying to get from one leader to another parted like snow in front of the plow when we walked through. It made me feel self-conscious. Soon, we were down in the main town part of Sesshoumaru's castle. I began to realize that the manor or palace or whatever it pleases you to call it was just a part of his home here. There was a settlement of youkai within the fortress walls, living in relative safety. A few of these people turned out to be blacksmiths.

One of them gestured us over. She pulled me into the back behind a partition. "Take your kimono off," she muttered gruffly.

I undid the obi and slid the garment down my shoulders. Standing there in my underwear made me feel self conscious, but I waited. The female went into the main room and came back with a breast plate, made to follow the exact form of a woman. It looked like something out of a geek's wet dream. She put it on me and took note of wear it was too big and too small, then grabbed it and went back into the main area. When she came back, it fit perfectly against my skin. "It has to pull tight against your kimono. So it doesn't allow space for something to slip in. That's why we fit you like this. If you weren't a Lady, we'd just give you standard issued fittings, unless you were an extreme case, but you have to be more protected than most of our bitches."

I nodded. "Thank you."

The female looked at me oddly. "You're welcome. I thought they'd been lying."

I tilted my head.

"You really do things out of the ordinary for your station."

I shrugged. "I wasn't born a lady, and I'm not sure I'll ever truly be what you all expect…" I winked at her. "I guess it'll just make me fun to have around."

She chuckled and left. I dressed and went out to meet Sesshoumaru.

He glanced at me once before turning and leading me off to another part of the castle. Along the way, he handed me a bow and a decorative quiver of arrows. I tried not to slow down while I adjusted everything in my arms. Eventually, we ended up in the same wing as where our bedroom was. This part of the manor was always less busy than everywhere else, but it was only today that I really looked around. There were… not necessarily paintings, but pictures from all different ages and genres, of what I can only assume was Sesshoumaru's ancestors. There was one of his Mother and father holding a baby and a ball of fluff. I quickly realized that was Sesshoumaru.

He kept walking down the hall, taking his time. I felt more like he was consciously giving me time to gawk. My suspicions were confirmed when he sent me a slight smile over his shoulder. How could anyone ever find that expression scary?

Eventually, we came to a door just a few feet away from ours. Sesshoumaru opened the door. When I walked in, it was pitch dark, no windows in this room. He lit a candle near the door, and the room was just bright enough to see in. It was a bare room, with just a few chests and shelves in it. Sesshoumaru's storage room, I presumed. Sessh took me by the hand and lead me towards the back, where, tucked away in a corner, there was an ornate chest. He lifted the lid and pulled out a dagger.

"This was forged from one of my fangs when I was still a young boy. Only my mate, my pups, and I can touch it, much less use it, without being seriously injured."

I took it from his outstretched hands, and he handed me the belt and sheath that it belonged with. I tested it and strapped it on. Sesshoumaru took my hand and began to lead me to our rooms.

"Come, I want you to rest before this last battle. I'll wake you when it is time," he murmured in my ear, planting a kiss right above it.

I nodded. I knew I would need the rest. "When will the battle be?"

"It'll start just before dawn."

I grimaced. "Tomorrow is going to be a long day."


End file.
